Sports fans want clear resolutions using objective measures to determine which team is best.Simple: Win something, get something. Survive and advance.Thats the way professional sports and most college tournaments work. It has never been that way in college ftball and while the playoff has injected some objectivity into the way a champion is determined, in many ways it is as subjective as ever -- mostly because it has to be.(Fans) lk into this process and they want it to black and white, but college ftball has never been black and white, said former Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese, a member of the playoff selection committee for the first two years. College ftball has always been gray.The current College Ftball Playoff selection committee is about to dive into one of those gray areas, maybe setting a precedent for the future of picking the final four. Ohio State cannot win the Big Ten, but the Buckeyes were second in the rankings last week and figure to be in the same spot Tuesday when the latest and second-to-last committee top 25 comes out.Ohio State added to its resume Saturday by beating Michigan, which had been No. 3.So the Buckeyes (11-1) will be like a golfer in the clubhouse on championship weekend, sitting on a top score hoping not to get caught while Penn State (10-2) and Wisconsin (10-2) compete for the Big Ten title and hope winning it is enough to make up ground. If Penn State (10-2) wins it will have what seems like a particularly gd argument to make the playoff ahead of the Buckeyes. The Nittany Lions beat Ohio State 24-21 in October, won the division they share and would be Big Ten champions.Simple, right? Win something, get something. In this case a playoff spot.The problem is this isnt the NFL and there are so many other variables to consider.There are huge variations in nonconference scheduling and very few matchups of top teams. To focus solely on conference plays is to render nonconference games such as Ohio States victory against Oklahoma meaningless. Or Penn States loss to Pitt. Even within a conference, schedules can be drastically different, especially when three of the Power Five conferences have two seven-team divisions.Setting strict requirements for teams to qualify for the playoff and leaving the selection committee with little rm for subjective reasoning creates the possibility of boxing out a worthy team.Theres crazy combinations out there, Tranghese said.Take Wisconsin, which lost to both Ohio State and Michigan, but gets to play for the Big Ten title because the West division is so much weaker than the East.When the conference commissioners created the playoff and the selection committee, there was much discussion about making only conference champions eligible for the final four.Coming on the heels of the first and only one-conference BCS championship game featuring LSU and Alabama out of the SEC, emphasizing conference champions was viewed as a way to make it less likely that one league would put multiple teams in the playoff.Ultimately, the selection committee was charged with picking the four best teams and best was left intentionally vague. The committee was given recommendations, not requirements.The protocol calls on committee members to consider conference championships, strength of schedule, head-to-head results and common opponents, When circumstances at the margins indicate that teams are comparable.It also says a non-conference champion can be included in the playoff if it is unequivocally one of the four best teams in the country.The protocol brings some objectivity into the discussion. When in doubt do this. How it is applied is subjective.You and I could chose to interpret the protocol differently, but that was the intent of the commissioners, Tranghese said. You factor all of that into your thinking. It gets discussed. It gets analyzed and you think about it.As of last week the 12-person committee had no doubt Ohio State belonged in the top four.Does the selection committee see a small margin of separation this week between No. 2 Ohio State and No. 7 Penn State? We do not, said committee chairman Kirby Hocutt, who is Texas Techs athletic director.It seems more likely that, barring an upset of Clemson in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game, the fourth playoff spot will come down to the winner of the Big Ten championship game and the winner of the Pac-12 championship between Washington (11-1) and Colorado (10-2).The circumstances are very different, but just two seasons ago, in the first year of the playoff, Ohio State leap-frogged both TCU and Baylor in the last rankings to take the fourth spot after a lopsided victory in the Big Ten championship game. The Buckeyes should not feel t comfortable this week.The only (ranking) that matters, Tranghese said, is the one at the end.---Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP Shareef Miller Youth Jersey . There are surprises among the Vezina candidates, but most of the others are standard top-tier performers, even if the two Hart Trophy runners-ups have never been quite as gd as they have been through the first half of the season. Wes Hopkins Eagles Jersey . -- Charline Labonte couldnt have asked for a better homecoming. http://www.theeaglesshoponline.com/ .B. -- The Baie-Comeau Drakkar tk over sole possession of first place atop the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on Thursday with their sixth straight win. Seth Joyner Jersey . Brazilian national coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has confirmed that the veteran goalkeeper is set to join Toronto on loan, saying it will help him be ready for the World Cup. Nick Foles Jersey . Malkin got tangled up with Detroits Luke Glendening early in the third period and his left skate tk the brunt of collision with the boards behind Pittsburghs net. ST. LOUIS -- Detroits Frans Nielsen had no doubt who was the difference for the Red Wings on Thursday night: goalie Petr Mrazek.Henrik Zetterberg scored in the eighth round of a shtout to give Detroit a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues. Zetterbergs goal gave the Red Wings a six-game winning streak.I think the goalie stole the game for us, said Nielsen, who scored the only goal in regulation for Detroit. I dont think weve been perfect but we found a way to win.That is what Mrazek found important.This was a huge win on the road for us, Mrazek said. St. Louis is a very gd team. You know in the first period we didnt play how we wanted to play but from that second half of the game, we were better.In the shtout, St. Louis first shter, Alexander Steen, scored but then Vladimir Tarasenko, Kevin Shattenkirk, David Perron, Nail Yakupoc, Robby Fabbri, Patrick Burgland and Dmitrjij Jaskin all came up short.I still think we could have pulled off some more moves, some better moves to give us better scoring chances, Shattenkirk said. We need to bury our chances.Gustav Nyquist scored on Detroits second attempt but Nielsen, Dylan Larkin, Andreas Athanasiou, Tomas Tatar, Riley Sheehan and Darren Helm all missed.St. Louis had the better chances in overtime. Center Jaden Schwartz missed a wide-open net early in the extra session. Jori Lehtera was stopped on a breakaway midway through the period by Mrazek.We played really well and had a lot of gd stuff but we dont finish, St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock said. Weve got to lk at whats working and whats not working. Youve got to finish at the end of the day.Were scoring one goal and getting points. Thats a hell of a feather in these guys caps but youre going to have score goals in this league.Fabbri was called for hking with 19 seconds left but Detroit could not cash in. The Red Wings outshot the Blues 3-2 in the overtime.We found a way to grind it out, Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. We had a big short-handed goal and it was big fr us to get the two points.ddddddddddddThe Blues and Red Wings have played to overtime in four of their last five meetings. The teams split their games last season with the road team winning each time.The Blues scored first at 21 of the second period on a goal by Shattenkirk. The puck came to Shattenkirk after Berglund won a faceoff. Shattenkirk sent in a wrist shot and the puck deflected in off the skate of Nielsen.Nielsen got it back for Detroit on a short-handed goal, tying the game 1-1 at 13:54. Helm got a lse puck at the top of the slot. He dropped the puck to the trailing Nielsen, who got around Shattenkirk and beat goalie Jake Allen with a backhand shot.St. Louis outshot the Red Wings 14-4 in a scoreless first period. Mrazek made two standout saves in the period, thwarting the Blues, who had a 23-15 shot advantage after two periods.Weve got to find a way to get wins, Allen said. Youre not going to win every single game in a shtout but that was a tough one tonight.Game notes Detroit LW Thomas Vanek sat out the game with a lower-body injury. The Red Wings listed him as day to day. ... LW Justin Abdelkader was back for the Red Wings after missing the last two games with a lower-body injury. ... Lehtera was back in the lineup after missing four games with an upper-body injury sustained in a 3-2 win against the New York Rangers on Oct. 15. To make a roster spot for Lehtra, the Blues put Magnus Paajarvi on waivers. ... Former Blues D Barret Jackman dropped the ceremonial first puck. Jackman spent 14 years in the NHL, 13 with the Blues. He signed a one-day contract to retire a Blue on Oct. 4 at Scottrade Center. Jackmans first game as a Blue was in a Stanley Cup playoff game against the Detroit Red Wings on April 14, 2002.UP NEXT:Red Wings: Will play visiting Boston Bruins on Saturday.Blues: Will play visiting Los Angeles Kings on Saturday. ' ' '