The Buckeyes are near the top of just about everybody's early preseason rankings so I *SHOULD* excited but to be honest, I'm really not. Being top-2 or top-5 preseason was a big deal when there was no playoff, a 2-team playoff (BCS), or a 4-team playoff but with 12 teams making it, preseason rankings are more-or-less irrelevant.
Also, in past seasons I'd have spent time obsessing over potential landmines such as:
- vs Iowa is a week before a HUMONGOUS showdown with Oregon, could the Hawkeyes catch tOSU in a "trap game"?
- vs Nebraska is sandwiched between showdowns in Eugene and State College, could the Cornhuskers catch tOSU in a Hangover/trap game?
- vs Purdue is the week after the visit to Penn State and Purdue is historically REALLY good at beating tOSU teams that they shouldn't, could this be a trap game?
Now that we have a 12-team playoff those things don't really matter anymore. Helmets (tOSU is) with high preseason rankings (tOSU will be) are basically guaranteed of a spot with a record of 10-2 or better.
That brings me to the subject of this poll:
I foresee that the debate now will focus on the relative ranking of 3-loss non-Champions because all the Champions and teams with two or less losses will get in and the last few spots will be allocated among 9-3ish teams.
Ohio State's 2024 schedule presents an interesting view of this. Assuming that the preseason prognostications are correct, the Buckeyes will play three VERY highly ranked teams including road games at #3 and #8. Those, and a home game against #13 are three REALLY tough games. After that, however, none of the other nine teams on tOSU's schedule are likely to be ranked pre-season.
So what is better?
- Successfully avoiding upsets against the unranked opponents but losing to all three ranked opponents, or
- Beating all three highly ranked opponents and thus collecting three quality wins but also getting upset three times by unranked opponents, or
- Somewhere in between?
What say you?
