Did Brands, Location Effect Playoff Matchups?

Most of us (unless you live in Waco or Fort Worth) have accepted the top four teams who will compete in the first ever College Football Playoff.

On New Years Day, Alabama will play Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl and Oregon faces Florida State in the Rose Bowl.

Good matchups, good teams, good locations for two of those teams, good brands?

Think about this.

Alabama will play in New Orleans: SEC country.

Oregon will play in Pasadena: Pac 12 country.

There were some who argued that Oregon deserved to be the top-ranked team in the final rankings. Instead, the Ducks are ranked No. 2 and will face Florida State on the west coast. That's a benefit for them. Also, Mariota vs. Winston? What a storyline.

Let's head to the Big Easy.

Alabama and Ohio State. Nick Saban vs. Urban Meyer. These two last met in the 2010 season when the Crimson Tide took down Meyer's "Tebow-less" Gators 31-6 in Tuscaloosa and had defeated them in the SEC Championship game the year before. Meyer is now with the Buckeyes and is looking to knock off Alabama and prevent them from winning their fourth title since 2009.

This makes for some good television. ESPN hopes so. They are spending $470 million a year over the next 12 years to show the games.

Some have asked if Ohio State got into the final spot because they were a "sexier" choice than Baylor or TCU and if Oregon did not jump Alabama because of location and the matchups.

This is just speculation.

The Big 12 hurt itself by sticking to their bylaws, announcing both Baylor and TCU as co-champions and not having a title game, and Ohio State took advantage their conference title game to get them into the final spot. There are lessons to be learned.

But here is some food for thought. Just hypothetically speaking.

What if the TCU-Baylor situation involved Texas and Oklahoma?

The Longhorns and Sooners have always been the big names of the conference. If Oklahoma beat Texas and both finished 11-1, 8-1 in the conference, and despite the Big 12's blunder to name co-champions, do the Sooners have a better shot to get in over Ohio State than Baylor did?

The weekly unveiling of the playoff rankings were pointless, but we were watching. So perhaps some thought went into who Alabama and Oregon played due to location and storylines. Sporting events are the original reality television. Storylines and drama attract eyeballs.

Alabama-Ohio State is better than Alabama-Baylor. It is also a better matchup than if they played Florida State in the semifinal. Oregon playing Florida State is more appealing than if the Ducks played the Buckeyes. Why pass up the chance to highlight last seasons Heisman winner taking on an eventual Heisman winner? Either way, the national championship game will probably be Alabama-Oregon.

There seems to be an art to all of this. We did watch those useless rankings shows every Tuesday night for seven weeks. What makes you think some thought was not put into to these games?