Ohio State Football: Who should be No. 1, OSU or LSU?

The Ohio State football team and LSU Tigers both have an impressive body of work thus far, but which team should be ranked No. 1 in the polls?

No matter what way you examine the performances of each team in college football this season, the way Ohio State and LSU have played have been the most impressive. Both the Buckeyes and Tigers have absolutely dominated their opposition en route to weekly multi-score leads and wins.

But which team should be ranked No. 1?

If you’re using the resume of each team, then the answer is LSU due to their three top 10 wins. One of which, against Texas, has lost a bit of its luster.

All that DBU talk turned out to just be smoke and mirrors as the Longhorns are desperately searching for their defense which has been MIA for weeks.

But if you’re using the eye test, the clear selection is the Ohio State Buckeyes. Ryan Day has his team determined, focused and motivated each and every week on the game at hand. Not one week down the road, they’re focusing on the moment going one game at a time.

Ohio State is outscoring their opponents by an outrageous 323 points this season with their average margin of victory still over 40 points per game. The next closest is Alabama at 33.3 ppg for reference.

Also, the Buckeyes have not allowed a team to gain 300 yards of offense nor given up more than 10 points since week 1. Scoring against the Silver Bullets in the fourth quarter has been a difficult task for any team since that win over Florida Atlantic as well.

Ohio State is dominating in every phase of the game and looks like the most complete college football team in recent memory. The Buckeyes also boast wins over two teams currently ranked as do the Tigers, who are outscoring their opponents by 26.3 points per game according to Pick Six Previews.

Joe Burrow has been tremendous this season leading LSU’s offense, as well as the Heisman conversation. However, the Tigers have not always been sound defensively.

They have given up 28 or more points three times this season with one of those instances being against Vanderbilt when they surrendered 38 points in what was still a blowout win.

Of course a monstrous game looms large in Tuscaloosa in just two weeks for the Tigers. Like the Tide and Buckeyes, they have a bye this week so each team has given the committee their final data points for their initial rankings released next Tuesday night.

LSU does have “better wins” than Ohio State, but the Buckeyes have looked more impressive and more complete. Ohio State is the one team in college football that lacks a weakness as they’ve mended those gaping holes from just a year ago.

LSU is one of the elite teams this year, but for right now Ohio State should be ranked No. 1 all things considered.

Now if the Tigers defeat the Tide in Tuscaloosa, then absolutely they should take the top spot. But as it stands right now, the Buckeyes are the best team in America.

The AP voters are starting to take notice of their top teams as LSU, Alabama and Ohio State are all separated by a razor-thin margin of eight points in this week’s AP Poll.