Ohio State drops to No. 6 in College Football Playoff rankings after loss at Michigan
Ohio State fell four spots to No. 6 in the College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday night.
The drop follows the Buckeyes’ 30-24 defeat at archrival Michigan and makes for a narrow path to return to the playoff when the selection committee puts together its final rankings next week.
When the Buckeyes backed into the four-team field last season in the aftermath of their loss in The Game, they were No. 5 in the penultimate rankings, needing only a loss by Southern California to Utah in the Pac-12 championship game to rise a spot and secure a berth.
But with a crowd of contenders that includes two ranked ahead of the Buckeyes entering the conference championship game weekend, the odds of a climb are steep. A lot of chaos must unfold over Friday and Saturday, and Ohio State is idle, lacking an opportunity to even boost its resume.
If the higher-ranked teams stumble, there is a path for the Buckeyes, who have two wins over teams ranked in the top-25 between Penn State at No. 10 and Notre Dame at No. 17. Ohio State’s victories over both of them last year added to its case. Since the inception of the four-team CFP in 2014, each season has seen at least one one-loss team in the field.
Boo Corrigan, the athletic director at North Carolina State who chairs the selection committee, said on a teleconference that the members have “a lot of respect for Ohio State being No. 6.”
“Really good team,” Corrigan added, “and it was a one-possession game on the road (at Michigan).”
Among the 11-1 teams outside of the top-four, the Buckeyes are ranked as the second-highest among them, trailing only Oregon at No. 5, while Texas is No. 7 and Alabama is No. 8. The other three are all in conference title games this weekend.
The top-four is a field of unbeatens with Georgia at No. 1, Michigan at No. 2, Washington at No. 3 and Florida State at No. 4.
Corrigan indicated the gap between No. 3 and No. 6 is narrow.
“You can’t get closer to three and four and five and six in what we’re looking at,” he said.
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Follow him on Facebook and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. He can also be contacted at jkaufman@dispatch.com.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: College Football Playoff rankings: Buckeyes drop to No. 6
