The Buckeyes Were Bound to Drop, But This?
September 16th, 2009 at 12:04 am by Displaced Cleveland FanOhio State slipped in the polls to #11 this week, following Saturday night’s loss to USC. I optimistically predicted a #9 ranking. But hey, 11’s not bad. It’s only week 2. There’s still plenty of time for the Buckeyes to move up in the rankings (much to the chagrin of many college football fans).
So the #11 ranking… no big deal. It’s understandable. But what’s not understandable is one set of rankings for the Big Ten conference that has come out this week.
The Big Ten Power Rankings from Rivals.com has the Buckeyes at #4 in the conference. #4? Seriously?! So who do they have ahead of Ohio State?
- Penn State. I have no problem with this one. Whether the Nittany Lions are better than the Buckeyes remains to be seen. I’m looking forward to it being decided (along with the Big Ten title, possibly) on November 7th. Barring a meltdown or injuries, these teams should be 1 & 2 in the conference going into that game. So who are the teams that Ari Wasserman ranked between Penn State and Ohio State?
- Michigan. The Wolverines have cracked the top 25 (barely) with a win over #18 Notre Dame. This was not even a commanding win. It took a touchdown in the last minute to beat the Irish 38-34.
- Iowa. The Hawkeyes aren’t even in the top 25. Sure they won 35-3 this week. But they were playing Iowa State.
I know. These rankings don’t matter. But does anyone really think that Michigan or Iowa would beat USC this past week? Who believes that either of these teams would come closer to winning that game than the Buckeyes did? Anyone?
Obviously the voters in the national polls see Ohio State (#11) as stronger than Michigan (#25) and Iowa (unranked).
Whatever. If the Buckeyes care about these rankings and feel they were slighted, they can take it out on Toledo this week.
-dcf
Tags: Iowa, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, polls, USC
