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Updated ESPN FPI rankings predict Ohio State’s remaining games
By Andrew Kulha
Published:
Ohio State fans have to be feeling pretty good about their school’s Week 1 win, this despite the fact that head coach Urban Meyer was serving game one of his three-game suspension and the drama surrounding the program and former coach Zach Smith has still been dominating the headlines.
The Buckeyes were heavy favorites entering Week 1 and they did not disappoint against the visiting Oregon State Beavers. Sure, OSU gave up 31 points to a Pac-12 opponent in The Horse Shoe, but the Buckeyes also put up 77 points of their own, led by 313 yards and five touchdowns thrown (just one interception) by sophomore quarterback Dwayne Haskins and 186 rushing yards and two scores from junior running back Mike Weber.
Especially offensively, it was a good performance from Ohio State — and it’s not like they were playing an FBS opponent.
The Buckeyes may not shift much in the AP Poll considering the four teams ahead of them — Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, and Wisconsin — all came away with wins, but ESPN’s Football Power Index did move a bit in OSU’s favor.
Ohio State had a preseason 22.8 FPI with a projected win-loss of 10.4-2.0.
After the win against Oregon State, Ohio State has been bumped to a FPI of 23.1 and they now have a 10.7-1.8 projected win-loss with a 40% chance of winning the Big Ten and a 10% chance of winning out.
If ESPN is thinking one likely loss for Ohio State this weekend, it likely won’t come next weekend against Rutgers. Games against No. 16 TCU or at No. 10 Penn State this month are more likely to be challenges.
Andrew covers the B1G on Saturday Tradition.