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Advanced stats show that Ohio State football is best College Football team

By Ryan Stano

Oct 8, 2022; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes sing Carmen Ohio after their NCAA Division I football game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan State Spartans at Spartan Stadium.Osu22msu Kwr 65
Oct 8, 2022; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes sing Carmen Ohio after their NCAA Division I football game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan State Spartans at Spartan Stadium.Osu22msu Kwr 65 /
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We saw a change in the polls for the first time in a while when it comes to the Ohio State football team’s ranking. The Buckeyes are now second in the AP Poll, only behind Georgia. While they aren’t number one in either the AP or the Coaches Poll, they are number one by a variety of advanced stats.

ESPN’s Bill Connelly has his SP+ rating, which measures the efficiency of a team and adjusts for both tempo and opponent. He has the Buckeyes as the number-one team in the country with an SP+ of 30.4. Alabama is second with an SP+ of 29.1. The gap between Ohio State and the fourth-ranked team, Michigan, is 4.9.

He’s not the only one to have Ohio State ranked one with the advanced metrics either. Brian Fremeau has his FEI+ rating, which shows the per-possession scoring advantage of a team against an average opponent on a neutral field based on adjusted efficiency data. He has Ohio State as the clear number one too.

The Ohio State football team has the best advanced stats in the country.

The Ohio State football program is far and away the best offense with the advanced stats, getting a 2.96 by combining the FEI+ and the SP+ metrics. They have a 2.96, while the next closes team has a 2.03. Higher is obviously the better number. (These stats are all courtesy of Football Outsiders.)

Whether you like traditional stats or advanced stats, the Ohio State Buckeyes are clearly the best team in the country. The advanced stats take into consideration the level of competition as well, which admittedly hasn’t been very high so far for the Buckeyes. Even with the competition not being the best, the Buckeyes are still a great team.

After the bye week, they’ll get a chance to prove just how good they are. They take on Penn State after the Iowa game next week. That will be a big test for this Ohio State team considering it will be the only currently ranked team that the Buckeyes have played all season.

Next. Three best individual seasons in Ohio State history. dark

I think the Buckeyes are a truly great team. Both the stats and the eye test prove that.

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