Ryan Day, Buckeyes make argument for No. 1 ranking in College Football Playoff poll
Ohio State had one last chance to make its case on the field. Saturday night in Indianapolis, the Buckeyes has an opportunity to prove it was the best team in college football.
The Buckeyes defeated No. 8 Wisconsin 34-21 to claim a third straight B1G title and improve to 13-0 on the season. The first half was pretty ugly, trailing the Badgers 21-7, but Ryan Day and company played a flawless second half to secure a spot in the College Football Playoff.
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Now, the question is whether or not Ohio State has done enough to hang on to that No. 1 ranking, or if the Buckeyes get passed up by No. 2 LSU, which defeated No. 4 Georgia in the SEC Championship Game 37-10.
After Ohio State claimed its B1G title, Day and a few players made their case to be the No. 1 team in the country when the College Football Playoff rankings come out on Sunday.
Ryan Day: “If there's a better team out there, I'd like to see them."
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) December 8, 2019
The committee will decide whether Ohio State or LSU will be the top seed, but Ryan Day has his mind made up: “I think we deserve to be the No. 1 team in the country." https://t.co/qWpXLtIqij
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) December 8, 2019
OSU CB Jeffrey Okudah: “Yeah, I want to be No. 1 because I feel like we’ve earned it. No. 1 is what we put in the work for. No. 1 is what we should get.” https://t.co/T6Q2qs1H3E
— Teddy Greenstein (@TeddyGreenstein) December 8, 2019
WR Austin Mack on OSU’s strongest case to be No. 1: “All of our non-conference teams were in their conference championships this week. We just went back-to-back weeks against top-15 opponents. We beat the crap out of the Team Up North, beat a really good Wisconsin team twice.”
— Teddy Greenstein (@TeddyGreenstein) December 8, 2019
Ohio State certainly makes a strong case, beating Penn State, Michigan and Wisconsin in the last three weeks of the season. The Buckeyes also defeated Cincinnati and Wisconsin earlier in the year.
But will Saturday’s B1G title and 13-point win over the Badgers be enough? Or will LSU take that No. 1 spot back over? We’ll find out on Sunday.