To the shock of many college football fans, the first edition of the College Football Playoff Rankings this season revealed the Ohio State Buckeyes to be the #1 team in the nation, putting them ahead of their previous superiors in #2 Georgia and #3 Michigan. During the Rankings Reveal show on ESPN, Rece Davis and company cited Ohio State’s massive wins at the then #9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and at home versus the then #10 Penn State Nittany Lions as the reason for Ohio State’s rocket boost to the top spot. A valid point no question, but despite the Buckeyes seemingly proving on the field that they’re the ones to beat, many fans across the nation still remain skeptical of the scarlet and gray, and question if they are really as good as the committee has made them out to be.

For starters, it’s easy to look at the rankings as they are and immediately compare them to those of last year at this time, where the committee placed the Tennessee Volunteers at #1 during the initial rankings for similar reasons as the Buckeyes of this year, despite Georgia holding the #1 spot through that point in the season. The committee’s praise of the Vols was invalidated the very next week when the team traveled into Athens to take on the Georgia Bulldogs, with Georgia showing who the superior dog breed was with a convincing 27-13 win in a game that saw Tennessee fail to score a touchdown until the 4th quarter. Needless to say, considering that it has been over two years since Georgia last lost a football game and not to mention the fact that they didn’t miss a beat versus rival Florida even in the absence of star tight end Brock Bowers, it wouldn’t be shocking to see a majority of fans claim that the Bulldogs are still the best team in the nation.

Then you have a case to be made for Ohio State’s heated Midwest rival, #2 Michigan. Sign stealing allegations not withstanding, the Wolverines have been as good as advertised thus far in 2022. With that in mind, one can only imagine  how it must have stung their fans to see their biggest rival jump them after being ranked ahead of them for two months. The 8-0 Wolverines, even after beating Ohio State in their annual contest coined “The Game” for two straight years, will still have something to prove to the college football world come the end of November. With a trip to Happy Valley to see #11 Penn State on the Horizon, Michigan’s quest to stay unbeaten and return to the Big Ten title game and beyond will prove far more difficult than Ohio State’s remaining schedule before their trip to Ann Arbor. 

Could Michigan’s recent allegations of sign stealing have invoked some impartiality from the selection committee? It’s unlikely. Falling back on the words from the announcers of the selection show, the fact of the matter is that Ohio State has two wins against highly ranked opponents this season, whereas Michigan has yet to play an opponent inside the Top 25, let alone an opponent that has presented them with any sort of challenge. Not to mention that any sort of bias found within the selection committee would almost certainly invalidate their say on where any given team should be ranked.

Whether one is to consider the teams in the rankings through the lens of statistics or the standard “eye test”, time as always will be the ultimate factor in deciding who the true #1 team in the nation will be. Whether that will be a Big Ten champion who is yet to be crowned, a new dynasty looking for three national titles in a row, or another unexpected contender will be an ever-fascinating movie to see play out as the season marches onward.