Where is Ohio State ranked in first CFP rankings? How far Buckeyes fell after USC loss - USA Today
Ohio State's College Football Playoff path took a hit with last week's loss to Southern California, as the Buckeyes failed to score a touchdown until the final two minutes and posted a season-low point total in their first game without Julian Sayin.
The impact of that defeat became clear Tuesday night when the CFP selection committee unveiled its first rankings of the season, revealing the exact margin for error Ohio State has to work with for the remaining four weeks of the regular season.
Ryan Day's squad came in at No. 12 in Tuesday's unveiling in the full top 25 rankings. It's one of the lowest rankings the Buckeyes have received from the CFP selection committee in almost a decade.
Were the season to end on Tuesday, the Buckeyes, as the No. 12 seed in the 12-team field, would be the first team out of the bracket. (Boise State, ranked 25th would bump the Buckeyes as the 12th team in).
The Buckeyes entered Tuesday's rankings reveal show as one of several teams with looming questions surrounding their name, largely in part to the fact that they are a two-loss team with a backup quarterback playing because their starting quarterback is out indefinitely with an injury.
Ohio State has a chance to either strengthen — or severely damage — its CFP resume on Saturday when it hosts Oregon at 3:30 p.m. ET. The Ducks are also starting a backup quarterback, but they've underperformed to their expectations and fallen out of the top 25 after entering the season as a legitimate national title contender.
The Buckeyes came in at No. 12 in Tuesday's CFP rankings reveal. It marked the first time Ohio State was ranked outside the top 10 of the CFP rankings since Nov. 7, 2017, when the Buckeyes came in at No. 13.
At 6-2 overall on the season, Ohio State's biggest wins are its two top-15 wins on the road at Iowa and Indiana. The Buckeyes also have two "good" losses against Texas (CFP No. 7) and USC (CFP No. 20) on their resume, which shouldn't hurt their resume, assuming that's all they have through the remainder of the season.
"The committee still has a lot of respect for Ohio State and who they are as a football team this year. They do have a very impressive win on the road at Indiana that came down to a wire to a catch in the end zone that was just missed by inches," Yurachek said. "But they didn't look like the same Ohio State team this past weekend against Southern Cal, a Southern Cal team that defensively had not been very good to this point in the season."
Curiously, Indiana — whom the Buckeyes beat head-to-head in Bloomington — was eight spots higher as the No. 4 team in the rankings. Here's what Yurachek said of the disparity:
"We never got to a point where we were comparing Indiana and Ohio State in their head-to-head. We watched Ohio State Saturday against Southern Cal. I don't want to put the burden on the freshman quarterback (Luke Fahey) 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 in a room shared concern about Ohio State up front and their defense, and not necessarily the quarterback, but they did start a freshman quarterback, and stalled some when they got inside the 30-yard line."
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