Ohio State’s two weeks atop the college football world have come and gone for now, at least as far as the College Football Playoff rankings are concerned.
The Buckeyes fell from No. 1 to No. 2 in the second batch of College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday, leapfrogged by Georgia after the Bulldogs knocked off No. 13 (then-No. 9) Ole Miss in dominant 52-17 fashion on Saturday, a second-straight top-15 win for the Bulldogs after they beat No. 9 Missouri 30-21 the week before.
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Ohio State’s 38-3 victory over three-win Michigan State was not enough to hold off Georgia due to its culmination of wins across the season, per College Football Playoff selection committee chairman Boo Corrigan.
“We go in there every week and repeat it again with a clean sheet,” Corrigan said. “You look at the Missouri win, Missouri's win in turn over Tennessee and the Mississippi win, and looking at the totality of the schedule as we go through this, and 5-0 against teams that are .500 and better, the win over Florida, the win over Kentucky.”
Statistically, Georgia has been a more complete team than Ohio State in 2023.
The two sides compare well on defense, with the Buckeyes possessing the No. 2 scoring and No. 4 total defense in college football while the Bulldogs are No. 6 and 9 in those same categories. On offense, however, Ohio State ranks just 30th in scoring and 36th in total yardage while Georgia is 6th and 5th, respectively.
Corrigan also pointed to Georgia’s 38-3 run after a 14-14 start against the Rebels this past Saturday as a reason why the Bulldogs deserved the top spot.
The selection committee still holds Ohio State in high regard, however. Corrigan stated that the margin between the Buckeyes and the Bulldogs is thin.
“It's them (Ohio State), but it's also what the teams around them do,” Corrigan said. “You're seeing improvement from a lot of the teams that we're talking about in how they're playing. In some cases, players coming back from injury and just making sure that we're trying to read the whole piece of what's going on, and Ohio State has been hit by the injury bug as well, and seeing them have their guys back on the field continues to impress the committee. You can't get much closer than those two.”
Ohio State’s résumé is what put it ahead of Georgia in the first batch of rankings a week ago and kept it there last week. The Buckeyes hold wins over a pair of opponents ranked in the top 20 in No. 12 Penn State and No. 19 Notre Dame.
Georgia’s win over Ole Miss gave the Bulldogs their own second win over a top-20 team, however, bringing their résumé on par with Ohio State’s with a better passing of the eye test.
Georgia gets a chance to solidify its spot over Ohio State when it hits the road for a third-straight ranked game against No. 18 Tennessee this Saturday. The Buckeyes will face unranked Minnesota in Ohio Stadium.
