I was being a little "tongue in cheek" with the comment.
I guess I am looking at an average year. OSU had a non-con loss last year. The problem this year was also OSU didn't take care of business. They did nothing to deserve to go. Got smacked by Purdue, Maryland, should have beat them. We could have beat them. Minnesota had the lead , PSU had the lead late, Indiana was close at half. OSU was looked unfocused in most of their games. I am talking in a normal year.
The formula should be:
Play no true non-con road games, play 8 conference games with balanced crossovers, and play a FCS game late. Formula works nicely for the $EC. If we want in, we need to play by the rules that the teams that get in do.