Ohio State still No. 1 in College Football Playoff rankings ahead of rivalry week

COLUMBUS — Ohio State hasn’t cared about the College Football Playoff rankings releases at any point since they started being revealed in the first week of November. But this week especially, the Buckeyes are locked in on their upcoming game — certainly not glued to the TV watching the CFP rankings.

For what it’s worth, the Buckeyes will enter The Game against Michigan as the No. 1 team in the CFP rankings for just the second time and the first time since 2019, when they beat the Wolverines 56-27 in the Big House as the top-ranked team.

Ohio State is followed by Indiana, Texas A&M, Georgia and Texas Tech ahead of rivalry weekend. Michigan is ranked No. 15 ahead of the rivalry clash with the top-ranked Buckeyes.

Of course, all of the attention this week is on The Game. And Ohio State feels ready to enter the Big House with plenty to prove and plenty of emotion.

“You have to play with emotion, but you can’t let it play with you, and you have to learn to use it as nitrous, not as a primary fuel source,” Day said Tuesday ahead of his sixth edition of The Game as a head coach. “And I think that’s where our guys have to continue to just focus on the process of how they prepare for games. They’re going to have enough emotion when they get into the game. We don’t need to incite any more of that during the week. They know how important this is. 

“They know that this is our number one goal every year, to win this game. So that will be our focus.”

Not that Ohio State cares about anything other than The Game and beating Michigan to get to the Big Ten title game, but the Buckeyes are No. 1 in the latest CFP rankings with just two more rankings releases to go before the official bracket is set.

The last two rankings releases will come out Dec. 2, before conference championship weekend, and on Dec. 7, the day after conference championship games to set the CFP bracket.

What CFP bracket would look like

No. 9 Notre Dame at No. 8 Oklahoma (winner plays No. 1 Ohio State)
No. 10 Alabama at No. 7 Ole Miss (winner plays No. 2 Indiana)
No. 11 Miami at No. 6 Oregon (winner plays No. 3 Texas A&M)
No. 12 Tulane at No. 5 Texas Tech (winner plays No. 4 Georgia)

The full College Football Playoff Poll can be found below.

College Football Playoff Rankings (Nov. 25) with rivalry weekend matchup

1. Ohio State (at No. 15 Michigan)
2. Indiana (at Purdue)
3. Texas A&M (at No. 16 Texas)
4. Georgia (at No. 23 Georgia Tech)
5. Texas Tech (at West Virginia)
6. Oregon (at Washington)
7. Ole Miss (at Mississippi State)
8. Oklahoma (vs. LSU)
9. Notre Dame (at Stanford)
10. Alabama (at Auburn)
11. BYU (vs. UCF)
12. Miami (at No. 22 Pittsburgh)
13. Utah (at Kansas)
14. Vanderbilt (at No. 19 Tennessee)
15. Michigan (vs. No. 1 Ohio State)
16. Texas (vs. No. 3 Texas A&M)
17. USC (vs. UCLA)
18. Virginia (vs. Virginia Tech)
19. Tennessee (vs. No. 14 Vanderbilt)
20. Arizona State (vs. No. 25 Arizona)
21. SMU (at California)
22. Pittsburgh (vs. Miami)
23. Georgia Tech (vs. No. 4 Georgia)
24. Tulane (vs. Charlotte)
25. Arizona (at No. 20 Arizona State)

November schedule for Buckeyes

Nov. 1 — vs. Penn State (38-14 W)
Nov. 8 — at Purdue (34-10 W)
Nov. 15 — vs. UCLA (48-10 W)
Nov. 22 — vs. Rutgers (42-9 W)
Nov. 29 — at No. 21 Michigan (Noon, FOX)