WayBackVazquez said:
Baylor hasn't played like crap. Nor really TCU or Oklahoma. Rankings don't bother me one way or another, but I'm pretty sure Ohio State is not the best team in college football, and expect them to lose at least two games despite a pretty easy schedule (I also think MSU is overrated, and they get the Spartans at home).
Funny, are you turning into a Big 12 guy, or is this just your Ohio State hatred (in fairness, I know you're a Michigan guy, so I have no issue with the bias, it's a birthright) coming through?
Baylor has probably played the "best" of any of the teams on macro level, but let's not get crazy. They've played four games against the sisters of the poor. Until they play and beat someone better than SMU, Lamar, Rice and Texas Tech, they don't deserve to jump over the defending champion until OSU loses. I don't think even you'd disagree with that. That said, I don't think a team that gives up 104 points to those teams played perfect football either. Baylor, as they usually do, has issues on defense, and will likely get exposed soon enough.
I love Oklahoma, but let's not get carried away there either. They played awful, putrid football for 3 quarters against Tennessee, and were lucky to pull out that game. They also gave up 24 points in the first half to Tulsa, and went into halftime with a 7 point lead. I think their win against West Virginia is certainly better than anything that Ohio State has won (although that Indiana team is better than most people will probably give them credit for), but the Sooners have most definitely had some pretty bad stretches of football.
TCU? TCU was exactly who I was thinking of when I said nearly every team had played like crap in some games this year. Their first win against Minnesota wasn't the cakewalk it should have been if you're talking about a top 5 team, and they gave up 52 to Texas Tech and won the game on one of the luckiest breaks in recent memory.
I think my point is on solid ground here. While Ohio State hasn't looked infallible, nobody really has. And as defending champion, when it comes to rankings, I think they more than deserve to be ranked No. 1 until someone knocks them off, or some other undefeated teams rattles off a couple of top tier victories. We just haven't reached that point in the season yet. That said, when you say OSU will lose 2 games this year, are you including the Big Ten title game and their bowl/playoff game, or are you saying just the regular season? If it's the latter, I just don't see it, unless it happens to be in the last two games of the year against MSU and Michigan. I think other teams might give them a game, but I don't see Maryland or Rutgers or anyone else on their schedule actually knocking them off until then. And if Urban pulls the trigger and hands the reigns back to Barrett, I think they'll be even better.
FTR, if I was picking teams based solely on how they've looked to this point in the season, I'd probably have Utah, Clemson and LSU in the top 5 in some order. IMO, they've looked as good, if not better, on a game by game basis as anyone, and have actually played better competition than OSU, Baylor, TCU, etc.