Joey Galloway won't be surprised if Ohio State isn't No. 1 in initial CFP Top 25 rankings

Ohio State has been on top of the college football landscape since opening the season with a 14-7 win over then-No. 1 ranked Texas in Columbus. The Buckeyes jumped to No. 1 in the AP Poll Rankings and have remained there ever since.

With the inaugural College Football Playoff Rankings dropping next week however, ESPN‘s Joey Galloway revealed that he wouldn’t be surprised if Ohio State wasn’t No. 1 in the initial rankings. Since the CFP was formed in 2014, five of 11 teams that were No. 1 in the inaugural rankings ended up being No. 1 in the actual CFP Rankings.

“Nov. 4th on that Tuesday, we’ll get our first look into how the Committee is viewing the schedule, the records and wins of all these teams,” Galloway said on Kirk Herbstreit‘s ‘Nonstop‘ podcast.. “We have Ohio State No. 1. I wouldn’t have a complaint in the world, if on Nov. 4, the committee doesn’t have them No. 1. Their resume is not great. Penn State will be unranked. Texas is hanging on by a thread. If Texas loses this week to Vanderbilt, they have a chance of not being ranked.

“So you look at their schedule and say ‘well, there’s no ranked wins.’ They look really good, but their resume and their schedule now all of a sudden has the potential to not look very good. They don’t play Indiana or Oregon. If the Committee was to move them down, I wouldn’t have an argument. I would understand it. I get it.”

Ohio State’s opponents ended up disappointing this season

Ohio State does indeed own two-top 25 victories, but they came against No. 1 Texas and No. 17 Illinois. It would have had a high-profile matchup with Penn State coming up, but the program has now lost four consecutive games and parted ways with James Franklin after opening the season ranked No. 2 in the country.

No. 2 Indiana, No. 3 Texas A&M and No. 4 Alabama have much stronger wins than the Buckeyes, although the Crimson Tide did drop their season opener to Florida State. Indiana (road win at No. 3 Oregon) and Texas A&M (road win at No. 8 Notre Dame) own two of the best wins in the sport, while Alabama has rattled off seven consecutive wins (four against ranked SEC opponents) since dropping its opener.

The last time the No. 1 team in the inaugural College Football Playoff Rankings and that week’s AP Poll were different came in 2023, when Ohio State (8-0) was No. 1 in the CFP Rankings and Georgia (8-0) was No. 1 in the AP Poll. Neither team ended up making the (then four team) CFP.