Heading into its game against USC, the Ohio State Buckeyes were the second-ranked team in the country. Luke Fahey led the Buckeyes into this game in his first start of his career. However, they lost the game 30-18 after a poor defensive effort throughout the game.
Ohio State now has two losses, which means they have their backs against the wall. They cannot afford to lose another game if they are going to make the College Football Playoff. However, their first ranking in the CFP is absurd and, quite frankly, disrespectful.
Ohio State is wildly disprespected in the first CFP rankings
In the first rankings released by the CFP committee, Ohio State is ranked 12th. That would mean they are the first team out in the CFP if the season were to end today. The G6 team would be ahead of the Buckeyes, which is shocking. In fact, one of the teams that they beat, Indiana, is eight spots ahead of them.
Why are the Hoosiers so much further ahead than Ohio State? Ohio State beat them on the road! Why is the committee giving the Hoosiers the benefit of the doubt when Ohio State won that game? It looks like the committee is punishing the Buckeyes for playing a backup quarterback.
Losing to USC certainly has pushed Ohio State further down, and they should be punished for that loss. However, Ohio State has wins over Iowa and Indiana, which are both in the CFP top 25. Ohio State also has a chance to beat another top 25 team in Oregon this weekend.
It's clear that the committee doesn't respect what Ohio State has done so far, despite the fact that they have taken down some good teams. The committee doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason for putting IU so far ahead of the team that beat them at home.
Ohio State has its work cut out for it for the rest of the year
With this first ranking, it's pretty clear that the Buckeyes have to win out if they want to have any shot of making the CFP. On Ohio State's schedule, they have just one more opportunity to beat a ranked team. They have to win this week against Oregon in order to get another ranked win.
Northwestern was left out of the CFP ranking after losing to Michigan State, which is unsurprising. Ohio State's two losses have come to the seventh- and 20th-ranked teams in the country. It's pretty clear that the committee is punishing Ohio State for not having Julian Sayin.
It seems that the committee is punishing Ohio State for blowing a 20+ lead in the fourth quarter against Texas. Rece Davis, Joey Galloway, and Greg McElroy all agreed that the committee was unjustly punishing Ohio State for scheduling Texas in September.
When talking to the CFP chair, Hunter Yuracek, he was asked about Ohio State and how Sayin's injury factored into their ranking. His answer won't make Buckeye fans happy.
"We never got to a point where we were comparing Indiana and Ohio State in their head-to-head. We watched Ohio State on Saturday against USC. We don't want to put all of the burden on the freshman quarterback, because their offense actually played fairly well. They were held to four field goals through three-and-a-half quarters. But their defense gave up some really big, explosive plays, and some of the coaches shared some concern about the defense up front."
The USC loss crushed them, but their logic doesn't make sense. This same defense held IU to 15 points, which is ranked fourth. The committee is a joke.
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