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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Beat Michigan, and the world is yours. That’s the only message Ohio State and its fans need to take from the College Football Playoff committee. The Buckeyes were No. 1 in the first rankings. But even if they’d been No. 2, the same message would be applicable since that spot went to Indiana. All the committee did was validate any thoughts that the two programs are on a collision course that ends in Indianapolis on Dec. 6, and the winner gets to walk into the playoffs as the No. 1 seed and potentially the Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback. But that doesn’t need to be their focus right now. Latest Ohio State Buckeyes news Where is Ohio State in the first College Football Playoff rankings? Here’s the bracket and full top 25 Julian Sayin’s Heisman campaign; the Hugh Freeze era ends at Auburn: College football’s winners and losers from Week 10 Johnny Manziel says Julian Sayin is brilliant, but is still missing one thing needed to win the Heisman Trophy Ohio State football’s Ryan Day reveals interesting backstory to Carnell Tate’s big play vs. Penn State The postseason is a foregone conclusion for a team that’s already 8-0, with games vs. Purdue, UCLA and Rutgers over the next three weeks. That’s three teams that are a combined 4-13 in Big Ten play, and three of those wins belong to the Bruins, who fired their head coach before they got them. Nothing we’ve seen from OSU this season suggests it is in any way in danger of getting got by a lackluster team. This is now a 25-day buildup to the only asterisk on what’s otherwise a championship-caliber coaching regime. The bigger picture goal is getting to Miami on Jan. 19 to repeat as national champions. On the way, it might even become the first 16-0 team in college football history. But last year already proved that, regardless of what happens in The Game, being the last team standing is possible. Ryan Day’s culture of ‘Fight’ has created an environment where the expectation is that this team can get back up off the mat if it gets knocked down. What happens in Ann Arbor isn’t about setting up what happens next. It’s about addressing the only problem anybody can have with Ohio State. The results inside Michigan Stadium on Nov. 19 decide just how many trophies this team can claim in 2025. Beat Michigan, and the world is yours. But nobody needed a committee to tell them that. What’s understood doesn’t need to be explained.
