Joel Klatt breaks down how Ohio State earned No. 1 spot in CFP rankings
The first wave of College Football Playoff Rankings has named Ohio State as the team to beat entering Week 10.
Ohio State surpasses two-time reigning national champion Georgia and undefeated Michigan despite ranking behind both teams in this week’s AP Top 25 Poll. College football analyst Joel Klatt explained why he believes the selection committee came together in favor of the Buckeyes.
“Now, a lot of people will say, ‘This doesn’t make any sense and we don’t think that they’re actually the best team in the country.’ Fair enough,” Klatt said. “But they do have the best resume in the country. This could have been seen and predicted, and a lot of us did think that Ohio State was going to be in this position because of those wins. They’ve got great wins, folks.
“The win at Notre Dame — outstanding. In particular, with the way that Notre Dame has been playing, and in particular lately, which is going to come back as a form of recency bias that this committee has sprinkled across this top 25. This is the first instance because the team that they beat is playing really well currently.
As it stands, Ohio State is expected to cruise into 2023’s edition of The Game undefeated. Taking down Michigan would only legitimize their ranking even further.
Still, Klatt believes they’ve already done enough to prove their worth. After all, they certainly have to the selection committee.
“They’ve also beat Penn State, so here they are with two of the best wins in the country. Penn State was 11 in these rankings, Notre Dame was 15. You can see this coming, and I don’t have a problem with it,” Klatt said. “Ohio State is a damn good football team. They’re built a little bit differently than they have been over the last three years. And because of that, maybe this is a form of strategy for Ohio State that will pay better dividends for them at the tail end of this year than it has over the last three years.
“Even though they’ve been great, they’ve been at the top end but they haven’t gotten over the hump. … Maybe this different blueprint is what they need. They’ve got the best resume and I don’t have a problem with them at No. 1.”
Ultimately, Klatt does not have Ohio State at No. 1 in his personal rankings, but that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve it. Luckily for the Buckeyes, their non-conference scheduling is paying off.