INDIANAPOLIS - Let's get this much straight: If Penn State finished 11-1 and won its conference, its fans wouldn't want a 10-2 team that won another conference to get into the College Football Playoff ahead of it.

Remember that.Because, what's fair is fair, and Sunday afternoon, the College Football Playoff committee may not have done the right thing or the correct thing, but it did do the fair thing.It placed unbeaten Alabama, and the three Power 5 conference teams that finished with one loss, into the four-team tournament that will decide the 2016 national champion.That Penn State is not one of those teams can - and almost assuredly will - be debated for as long as there is Nittany Lions football. But these No. 5 Nittany Lions are going to the Rose Bowl against No. 9 USC, and that should hardly be considered a disappointment. It's a 99.9th percentile result, in fact. It's the granddaddy of them all, as they say. It's every Big Ten team's goal. And like most goals worth having.But let's break this down, CFP participant by CFP participant. Which one should be left out so Penn State can get in?• Alabama? The Crimson Tide are No. 1 in the nation, won their conference handily, and are undefeated. Even in a shaky SEC, and even in college football in a day and age where losses don't doom champions like they used to, there's a big difference between an unbeaten Power 5 team and a two-loss Power 5 team, resume-wise.• Ohio State? OK, so Penn State beat the Buckeyes. And it's a worthy debate whether Ohio State really is as good as its perception indicates. It struggled with Northwestern. It came a failed two-point conversion against Michigan State away from losing. It probably got handed the Michigan game through the Wolverines' poor play in the clutch. It couldn't even get into the game Penn State won Saturday night.But the Buckeyes do have wins against three teams that are ranked in the top 10 of the CFP rankings. Penn State has two.The Buckeyes have only lost once. Penn State has lost twice.And it's not like there are four unbeaten teams plowing through power conferences. A one-loss season, in a conference like the Big Ten, is a pretty impressive thing, conference title or not.• Clemson? This has been a top-five team pretty much all season. It won its conference. Sure, the ACC isn't the Big Ten. But, Clemson has one loss - by three points to Pitt.Penn State has two losses - a three-point loss to Pitt in addition to a 39-point loss to Michigan.• Washington? This is a team that worked its way into the top four, won its conference impressively, and had just one loss.Sure, the Huskies aren't a team that can match Penn State's top-10 wins, and the Pac-12 championship doesn't and shouldn't carry the weight the Big Ten championship does.But this isn't a team devoid of impressive wins. It blasted No. 8 Colorado in the Pac-12 title game. It beat ranked Utah. It crushed ranked Washington State. It dismantled Stanford.It played its schedule. It won rather impressively, week after week. It won a Power 5 conference. At some point, the fair thing to do is take a team like that, because those are largely the attributes Penn State fans are asking the committee to understand about their team.Instead, Penn State will go to the Rose Bowl. It will play USC, a team getting some push to have been ranked higher. A team that, like Penn State, hasn't lost since September and has been coming into its own. It would be a terrific game, a tremendous challenge for a young Penn State team looking to cap off a magical season in the best way possible.Some will say that, for one of the few times ever, the Rose is not the best way to possibly end this season for Penn State. But this is a young team, with almost everybody returning next year.This team has a legitimate shot - Big Ten East or not, Michigan or not, Ohio State or not - of competing for the College Football Playoff again next year. Maybe, having that carrot dangling in front of them isn't the worst thing for this program, which has developed so much more quickly than anybody could have imagined these last two months.