It's worth remembering also that the Big 12's strategy almost worked.
They needed only one of four games to go their way last weekend: a lackluster performance by Ohio State, even if they won, or an upset in even one of the other conference championship games would have put a Big 12 team in the playoff. Unfortunately for the Big 12, every game went against them. Every one-loss team under consideration posted a dominant win and the undefeated team remained undefeated.