Ohio State football is looking to change the narrative of last season when it lost to Michigan for the second-straight time and is in a perceived slide. The Buckeyes haven’t won a Big Ten title in two years and had a bit of a disappointing (for OSU standards) 2023 recruiting class.
Meanwhile, Georgia seems to be on top of the college football world right now, the Wolverines are surging, and Alabama is — well, Alabama despite what many believe was a one-season outlier last season. Add that to the fact that Ohio State has to replace two-time Heisman finalist C.J. Stroud at quarterback and it would appear to be an uphill climb for the scarlet and gray this year, right?
Well, don’t tell ESPN that. The “worldwide leader” just released its first Football Power Index rankings of 2023 and has Ohio State ranked as No. 1. Yes, ahead of the Bulldogs, ahead of Alabama, and ahead of a Michigan team that has a lot of players back from last season’s team that beat OSU in the ‘Shoe and made the College Football Playoff.
Remember, what goes into ESPN’s FPI rankings is a proprietary formula. According to the description of what goes into the rankings, “The Football Power Index (FPI) is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team’s performance going forward for the rest of the season. FPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Projected results are based on 20,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI, results to date, and the remaining schedule. Ratings and projections update daily. FPI data from seasons prior to 2019 may not be complete.”
OK.
Anyway, you have to believe most of what the FPI believes in with the Buckeyes is the combination of returning players and talent on the roster. OSU has a lot of defensive players and skill-position guys left, and the recruiting has been great over the last few years.
Lots to digest here … College football FPI release: Top tiers, conference races and playoff hopes https://t.co/meXJXkGPOF
— Heather Dinich (@CFBHeather) April 18, 2023
So what does the entire top ten of the FPI look like this early on? Here’s a look at the complete top ten:
- Ohio State
- Alabama
- Georgia
- LSU
- Texas
- Michigan
- USC
- Clemson
- Notre Dame
- Penn State
All the normal disclaimers apply here. Despite Ohio State being on top of the FPI Rankings plenty of seasons before, it has only won one national title in 2014. In other words, OSU needs to do it on the field. It is also very, very early to put much stock in these sorts of things.
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