How can the Ohio State Buckeyes make the College Football Playoff

So, earlier this week on the betJACK site we talked about the Cincinnati Bearcats individual road to the College Football Playoff, so I figured I’d touch on what Ohio State needs to happen to make the College Football Playoff. Cincinnati currently ranks No. 3 nationally with Ohio State three spots below them at No. 6 nationally.

The schedule

Ohio State has six games left on the schedule, though I’m not the biggest fan of the schedule game, we’re going to play it here. When I look at the schedule knowing that the Buckeyes have three games scheduled with current top ten opponents (namely Penn State, Michigan State and TTUN). Penn State is currently No. 7, Michigan State is No. 10, and TTUN is No. 8 nationally according to the AP Coaches Poll. Should the rankings hold out, I think Ohio State can jump Alabama (who is ranked No. 5 nationally). 

What needs to happen for Ohio State to have a chance

At least two of these are going to have to be blowouts and/or considerable margins of victory for Ohio State. These three games are CRUCIAL to your 2021 College Football Playoff CV. They will make the loss that Ohio State took to Oregon loom less in the eyes of the committee and might even make the loss look better considering that Oregon is No. 9 and Oregon does NOT have any current AP Top 25 teams left on their schedule.

Obviously, you need to beat the teams that you’re supposed to beat if you’re Ohio State. If you beat TTUN and Michigan State, you win the Big Ten East on conference record. Add Penn State as a bonus win (since they are ranked inside the AP Top 10) and you set yourselves up for a date with the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Big Ten Championship with Iowa who I think won’t be leaving the top four teams any time soon given their schedule and how good they look right now. 

It will essentially set up Ohio State who could be ranked as No. 5 facing off against No. 2 Iowa for a win-and-in game from Indianapolis. Simply put, yes, they have run the table but they also have the most chance to vault teams and even potentially have TWO Big Ten teams in the College Football Playoff bracket for the first time in its relatively brief history. That would be a MASSIVE step for the Big Ten Conference in terms of NCAA Football.