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Of all the noisy conclusions to draw from Sunday's announced selections and pairings of the four college football playoff teams, one came through with greater amplification than any other: The Big 12 got punished for not having a conference championship game.

That's good news for BYU, the ever-hopeful program begging to get into a relevant league, namely the same conference that was just snubbed.

The Big 12 got what it deserved. Despite its name, ironically enough, it was the only P-5 league that limited its membership to 10 schools. Why? Primarily, it didn't want to share its money with two more member institutions. Secondarily, and just as ironically, it didn't want postseason opportunity sealed off by putting its best team at risk with another chance to lose in a title game.

That backfired on the league's decision-makers when TCU dropped from No. 3 to No. 6 in the final ranking, with Baylor jumping the Horned Frogs, but not enough to matter much, at No. 5.

Ohio State's impressive win over Wisconsin propelled the Buckeyes to the last spot among the fortunate four, after No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Oregon, and No. 3 Florida State. It was a strong move by Ohio State, although the Big Ten was decisively down this season, and the Buckeyes had the worst loss among the last candidates considered. Ohio State lost to Virginia Tech, a bad team. Everybody knew the first three teams were most certainly in.

All of Sunday's excitement centered on who the last one in would be, and who the two scorned would be. Urban Meyer's guys made the cut, which might have been expected since, in terms of football at least, everything always goes his way. Remember when that great USC team had to lose to a mediocre UCLA team in order for Urban's Florida squad to get into the BCS Championship game? It couldn't happen, but it did.

My theory is that Meyer somewhere, somehow along the line made a deal with the devil. I don't know the exact terms, I don't know what he had to give up, but Meyer was to benefit with breaks, opportunities, and wins. Either that, or he's a helluva coach.

You decide.

"We're honored to be part of the first college football playoff," he said after the announcement.

Ohio State will play Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and Florida State and Oregon will face off in the Rose Bowl.

The envious bridesmaids, Baylor and TCU, and the Big 12, don't have a lot of room to complain. They wanted their cake and to lick the icing off that cake, too, and the selection committee, despite a bit of twisted logic on dropping TCU like a rock after it killed Iowa State on Saturday, was having none of it.

Maybe now Big 12 school presidents will make a move for expansion and the composition of the league will not only properly reflect its name, it will gain the missing piece that hurt them this time around: that title game.

Even if the league does expand, there's no guarantee BYU will be included. But if it does go to 12 and BYU is part of that growth, which would be fitting all around, both the conference and the Cougars would be better off for it.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson.