They looked at Ohio State as a conference champion, but they kept seeing the numbers 52 - 14, and could not pull that trigger. Next champion down the rankings was USC at 8, with their loss by 30 to Notre Dame... not quite as bad. It was not a simple take the next one in line.
Look,what did Alabama achieve this year? They did not even win their half of the conference. I know that some losses are so bad as to give pause when selecting a participant BUT winning your conference championship SHOULD count for something extra when comparing teams. So Ohio State had a bad loss. They also WON their conference. There is a balance somewhere in how this should be viewed. You can’t just look at the loss. That championship should OUTWEIGH any loss.