Ohio State holds steady at No. 2 in latest batch of College Football Playoff rankings
Ohio State remains entrenched at No. 2 in the College Football Playoff rankings.
In the latest batch released by the selection committee Tuesday night, it was still behind top-ranked Georgia, while remaining ahead of Michigan and Texas Christian, the other unbeaten teams left in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
All top-four teams were threatened by near upsets before leaving unscatched. That included the Bulldogs holding on for a 16-6 win at Kentucky, the Buckeyes escaping with a 43-30 win at Maryland, the Wolverines rallying for a 19-17 win over Illinois and the Horned Frogs pulling out a 29-28 comeback at Baylor.
One of them is nearly assured to dropped next week, though, as Ohio State hosts Michigan in the 118th edition of The Game on Saturday.
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In a teleconference with reporters, North Carolina State athletic director Boo Corrigan, who chairs the selection committee, said the Buckeyes’ position remains bolstered by their non-conference win over Notre Dame, giving them an edge over Michigan and TCU. The Irish are No. 15.
Corrigan said it was an “impressive” win in addition to one over No. 11 Penn State, which was also beaten by the Wolverines.
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The team next closest to move into the top-four to grab one of the seeds for a berth in the playoff is Louisiana State, a two-loss team that has clinched the SEC West and moved up a spot to No. 5.
The Tigers, who visit Texas A&M this weekend, will also face Georgia in the SEC championship game after the Bulldogs captured the league’s East Division.
They were followed by Southern California, which rose to No. 6 after a 48-45 win over crosstown rival UCLA on Saturday night,. The one-loss Trojans are facing Notre Dame this week and are in position to win the Pac-12.
The rest of the top-10 includes Alabama at No. 7, Clemson at No. 8, Oregon at No. 9 and Tennessee No. 10.
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Contact him at jkaufman@dispatch.com or on Twitter @joeyrkaufman.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State football, Michigan both ranked in CFP top 4
