Top 10 players for the 2017 NFL Draft: While We’re Waiting
November 16, 2016
Cavaliers history with Bob Finnan – WFNY Podcast No. 554
November 16, 2016Last Saturday was a crazy one in college football, to say the least. With No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Clemson, and No. 4 Washington all getting upset by lower-ranked opponents, the Ohio State Buckeyes were able to jump up from No. 5 to No. 2 in the third College Football Playoff comittee’s rankings this week following their mauling of the Terrapins, much like they did in the Associated Press and Coaches polls.
Here’s a look at the official update, released Tuesday night:
Full #CFBPlayoff Top 25 for games played through November 12. pic.twitter.com/HMKAnElgs3
— College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff) November 16, 2016
The country’s top one-loss team, the committee had plenty of positive things to say about the Buckeyes during the show:
“We look at the complete resume, Ohio State has three wins over top-10 teams,” College Football Playoff Selection committee Chair Kirby Hocutt said. The committee is also “very impressed” with Ohio State’s back-to-back 62-3 wins the last two weeks.
With two weeks remaining in the regular season, the Buckeyes no longer control their own destiny in terms of making the Big Ten Championship game. With the Wolverines losing at Iowa this past weekend, even if Ohio State beats Michigan State and Michigan to close out the regular season, they will only make the conference title game if Penn State loses one of their final two regular season games (against Rutgers and Michigan State) as they own the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Nittany Lions beating the scarlet and gray a few weeks ago in Happy Valley.
How does Michigan’s loss affect Ohio State, you ask? If the Wolverines were undefeated heading into The Game, the Bucks would control their own destiny as beating the maize and blue would be a three-way tie atop the Big Ten East division (assuming Penn State wins their remaining two games), and the tiebreaker would be whoever is ranked the highest, which would be Ohio State.
Now the question is, if the Buckeyes were two beat Sparty and Michigan and not make the Big Ten championship, can they still make the Playoff? They are No. 2 right now but would be without a conference championship, let alone a division championship. In the first two Playoffs in 2015 and 2016, all eight teams who have made the Playoff have been conference champions. Could Ohio State set a new precedent if Penn State wins their final two regular season games, keeping the Bucks out of the conference championship? Only time will tell.
In terms of strength of schedule, the Buckeyes have one of the best. They bat No. 7 Wisconsin and No. 9 Oklahoma (both on the road), No. 18 Nebraska at home, and their lone loss came to the eighth-best team in the country, at least according to the rankings. Keep in mind, they play No. 3 in less than two weeks.
The entire Top 25, which includes four Big Ten teams in the top-10: (Big Ten teams are in bold)
- Alabama (10-0)
- Ohio State (9-1)
- Michigan (9-1)
- Clemson (9-1)
- Louisville (9-1)
- Washington (9-1)
- Wisconsin (8-2)
- Penn State (8-2)
- Oklahoma (8-2)
- Colorado (8-2)
- Oklahoma State (8-2)
- Utah (8-2)
- USC (7-3)
- West Virginia (8-1)
- Auburn (7-3)
- LSU (6-3)
- Florida State (7-3)
- Nebraska (8-2)
- Tennessee (7-3)
- Boise State (9-1)
- Western Michigan (10-0)
- Washington State (8-2)
- Florida (7-2)
- Stanford (7-3)
- Texas A&M (7-3)
7 Comments
As we all talked about the other day, still disagree about the possibility of Penn State winning out and pushing the Bucks out of the picture. The rankings this week say otherwise. The committee is showing their position now. The way it’s ranked, if Penn State wins the B1G and OSU wins out, the Bucks don’t move from #2, and re are 3 teams fighting for the 3 & 4 spots.
These rankings only upset/worry you if you’re Clemson, Louisville or Washington….particularly the latter two who are jockeying for position.
Ohio State actually should be rooting for PSU/Wisconsin in the title game because it’s unlikely that they go to the playoff if they make it to the B1G title game and lose. There’s just no way to keep a 1-loss OSU with 3 top-10 wins out of the playoff.
I mean, they should beat both of those teams, but why play another game if you don’t have to?
I don’t know if it matters whether PSU wins the conference. If they lose, they likely lose to either Wisconsin or Nebraska, both of whom the Buckeyes beat. If we can beat the Whole State of M*ch*gan, we might just find ourselves at #2, regardless.
If.
Let’s make that whole state blue (and black) again! Too soon?
I agree with you…been thinking the same thing. I’d really not like to face Wisco for the second time and risk everything.
http://i.cdn.talentegg.ca/incubator/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/When-you-dont-know-when-to-start-talking.gif
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