Ohio State football: What must be done knowing the fifth rankings?
By Ryan Rosko
College football is wrapping up. How can Ohio State move up into the playoffs?
There is one last week of college football games prior to bowl game season. For Ohio State, they have a lot of work to still do.
Ohio State won The Game versus Michigan and even though there were highly ranked teams lost, they did not move up too much.
The College Football Playoff revealed their fifth rankings. The Buckeyes are moving up but not by much as they are now eight.
Fifth #CFBPlayoff Rankings: Top 2️⃣5️⃣ for games played through November 25. pic.twitter.com/9Y3Qf70EQA
— College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff) November 29, 2017
Quite a bit of movement was made from last week’s rankings. So, looking ahead, how can Ohio State continue to improve?
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Top-ranked Clemson faces Miami (FL) in the ACC Championship on Saturday. If Clemson wins, they are in. Even if they were to lose, they may have an outside shot of remaining in the top four. Choosing between the two, just root for Clemson. As long as Clemson wins, that is a positive or OSU.
Second-ranked Auburn takes on Georgia. The winner is in no doubt, but if it is a close game, depending on how others play out, could allow two SEC teams in. I doubt that happens, but it is something to keep an eye on. At the end of the day, just root for Auburn so less chaos occurs.
With two spots taken, the focus is on the third and fourth spots. Oklahoma’s Big 12 Championship opponent is TCU. Oklahoma’s lone loss was by just seven points to Iowa State.
An Oklahoma loss would look worse when it comes to Ohio State’s case. If Oklahoma wins, they’ll be at least three. Should they lose, Alabama could be the lucky team this season that gets to be part of the top four. Therefore, Ohio State’s best case is the fourth spot.
Wisconsin is at four but hopefully not for long. Wisconsin’s biggest games up until now were versus Iowa and Michigan. So, frankly, Wisconsin hasn’t had too many tough games. They should be undefeated now.
With how the rankings are laid out, Ohio State must win on Saturday versus Wisconsin but not like they did last week. Rather, a game where they absolutely destroy the Badgers will be needed to surpass the SEC teams and possibly Miami.
Even if (when) Ohio State wins the conference, there is no guarantee they will get to play in the playoffs. The Buckeyes could be this year’s Penn State team. All of this said none of the possible scenarios will matter if they cannot win the Big Ten.
If it all works out to Ohio State’s advantage, Clemson, Auburn, Oklahoma takes the top three spots, while they take the fourth. So much has to be played out first, but the Buckeyes may be playing for the championship again!
Next: Lessons learned vs Michigan
As nice as that is though, prepare for them to be around six with a Big Ten win. That Iowa loss is the main reason why they are not ranked higher and because of that could come up close but no cigar.