Buckeyes, Spartans fall from top of USA Today Playoff Projection
Michigan State and Ohio State came into last weekend as the top two teams in USA Today’s Playoff Projection.
They, however, did not hold on to their place atop the 13-person panel.
For the first time, the Buckeyes are not No. 1. They fell to No. 3 with 23 total points while Michigan State dropped to No. 5 with 14 points. Utah replaced Ohio State with five of the first-place votes and TCU also leapfrogged the Buckeyes and Spartans to take the No. 2 spot with 24 points.
The B1G had a third team represented in the projections for the second straight week. Northwestern earned three fourth-place votes and came in at a tie for eighth.
Here’s how the voting shook out:
The 13-person panel is based on the College Football Playoff selection committee’s model and includes Timanus, former FBS coaches Tommy Bowden, Rich Brooks and Jim Grobe, former FBS athletic directors Bill Byrne and Jim Livengood, Michigan State men’s basketball coach and football aficionado Tom Izzo, WWE Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross and USA TodaySports college sports staff members Nicole Auerbach, Paul Myerberg, George Schroeder, Daniel Uthman and Dan Wolken.
The projection is purely a mock selection with no bearing on the Playoff selection committee’s decisions.