Ohio State Football: Loss to an SEC team won’t hurt your ranking much
Ohio State is ranked No. 4 in this week’s AP Poll and LSU jumped to No. 2. Three Top 10 teams have one thing in common, their loss came to an SEC team.
The Ohio State Buckeyes are now ranked No. 4 after a bye week. The Buckeyes are one of seven undefeated teams in the top 10 and three have one loss.
Those losses came to SEC teams so that must be okay. Before I get to that, let’s look at the Top 10 teams in the Week 8 AP Poll.
Alabama cruised to a 47-28 victory over Texas A&M to retain the top spot.
LSU jumped to No. 2 after defeating Florida 42-28.
Clemson was up and down through Week 6 but never ranked below No. 2. After winning 45-14 Saturday the Tigers dropped to No. 3.
Ohio State had a bye week and went from a tie for 3rd to No. 4.
Oklahoma now sits at No. 5 after a hard-fought 34-27 win over Texas.
Wisconsin moved up to No. 6 after dominating Michigan State 38-0.
Penn State pulled out a 17-12 win on the road against Iowa and is No.7.
Notre Dame is now 5-1 and the only loss was to the Georgia Bulldogs. With a win over USC 30-27 Saturday Notre Dame is now ranked No. 8.
After losing to LSU, Florida dropped to No. 9.
After a surprising loss to South Carolina, Georgia fell to No. 10.
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Now the one-loss teams may very well be three of the best in the country but I find the situations with the SEC teams interesting.
Florida battled hard on Saturday and led in the 3rd quarter before LSU pulled away to win by two touchdowns. If Wisconsin plays well a week from Saturday on the road against Ohio State but loses by 14 will the Badgers only drop two spots in the poll?
Now for Georgia. Does anybody but me think a home loss to a team that was 2-3 is a bad one?
Losses to Iowa and Purdue on the road the last two years kept Ohio State out of the College Football Playoff even though the Buckeyes went on to win the Big Ten Championship. By only dropping to No. 10, if Georgia runs the table and wins the SEC Championship Game will the Bulldogs be left out of the CFP.
Not hardly.
Next. Day's start at OSU more impressive than Meyer's. dark
I know this is just a poll, but those who discount the rankings haven’t been paying attention the last five years. Usually the Playoff Committee’s rankings are similar to the AP Poll.