The Ohio State football team is the top-ranked team in the country, according to the College Football Committee. They have spent just one week without being the top-ranked team in the country, and that was the first week of the season, when they came into the first game of the season ranked second.
After taking down Texas, the Ohio State Buckeyes have occupied that top spot every week. Heading into Tuesday night, they expected to be in the top spot again. They were ranked first, ahead of Indiana. Former Buckeye Joey Galloway said on the rankings reveal show that he thought Texas A&M deserved the top spot.
Following the revelation that the Buckeyes were at the top of the rankings, the committee chair talked to the fans and explained why the rankings fell the way they did, and why they had Ohio State as the top-ranked team in the country.
Ohio State's dominating defense is a big reason why they are the top-ranked team in the country
According to Mack Rhoades, who is the chairman of the committee this year, it was the offensive line and their defense that stood out.
"When we looked at tape and we looked at metric, we felt like Ohio State was a little bit better up front on the offensive line, and we thought they were better defensively. Then, when we looked at statistics and we included Texas A&M as part of the discussion, again, we felt like the separator there was defensively and that those two teams, Ohio State and Indiana, were better defensively."
The Buckeyes have been dominant in all but that first game of the year. Since then, no one has been better. Right now, they look like an unbeatable team, and that's why they got that top spot. Indiana will likely be the one to test that theory in the Big Ten Championship in December.
The defending national champions deserve any benefit of the doubt that they can possibly get. This team looks even better than the one that won it last season.