Michigan stays at #2 in AP Top 25
Ohio State inexplicably moves to #3 because Ohio against the World! Hilarious stat to know: Ohio State's 62 rushing yards were its fewest in a win since when it had 44 against NC State in 2003. And yet, they moved up.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/38547385/ap-poll-reaction-next-top-25-team
October 8th, 2023 at 3:12 PM ^
I guess it pays to whine, sob, and call out old people about your toughness.
October 8th, 2023 at 3:15 PM ^
I have no problem with Ohio State staying number three (even though it’s patently ridiculous) because the Buckeye tears after the CFP rankings come out and they aren’t anywhere near number three will be fun.
October 8th, 2023 at 3:39 PM ^
I don’t see how they beat PSU in two weeks.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:20 PM ^
IMO, PSU is a mirage built on pre-season hype and that game is essentially a toss up. The offenses PSU have played are worse on average than those we have played against (mostly due to Iowa, but still) and so far, their OL is not showing it's better than that of OSU. Allar might be a really good QB one day, but he and the RBs just aren't producing vs what one would expect with the quality of their opponents. Plus, that game is in Columbus.
October 8th, 2023 at 7:41 PM ^
Ah, we've reached the point of the year where we shit on OSU and PSU, only to bitch and moan in a few weeks when the CFP committee devalues the B1G.
LOL, then we bitch about about how the B1G has OSU and PSU, while the committee is disrespecting the conference.
October 8th, 2023 at 10:40 PM ^
Devalue does not mean they are worse than most of the SEC teams. In fact they are definitely better than all the SEC teams except Georgia. Bama is down. But ESPN will tout them. It is nothing to do with our trash tack. I wouldn't equate SEC bias to what we think about OSU and PSU
October 8th, 2023 at 4:20 PM ^
Penn State hasn't really wowed either.
October 8th, 2023 at 7:06 PM ^
I give you Frames Janklin.
October 8th, 2023 at 7:19 PM ^
I've been underwhelmed by both teams but I think PSU's defense wins them that game
October 8th, 2023 at 8:32 PM ^
I mean, ohios defense is their strength this year, dont see Penn State's defense being better in columbus.
October 8th, 2023 at 7:27 PM ^
I see that game turning on one or two big plays. I think both defenses will generally get the better of the opposing offenses.
October 8th, 2023 at 8:29 PM ^
Penn State should be able to get pressure on McChord and they have a good secondary. But I don’t have a ton of confidence in Penn State’s offense. So I think the game will come down to turnovers and special teams. OSU seems a bit more likely to beat itself than Penn State.
October 8th, 2023 at 3:16 PM ^
I remember when OSU won that triple overtime game against NC State in 2003. As a result, many of our fans didn’t get to see the start of the Michigan/Notre Dame game, the Chris Perry game we won 38-0. Only those of us in the metro Detroit area got switched over to our game. Everyone else had to wait…and people were furious.
October 8th, 2023 at 5:25 PM ^
Yep, was at a sports bar in Chicago and they had no way to get the feed. And ABC kept going to commercial breaks between each overtime drive. It was, if I recall correctly, 17-0 once it came on.
October 8th, 2023 at 7:24 PM ^
Username checks out
October 10th, 2023 at 11:05 AM ^
Interesting, never knew that (because I was at the game).
October 8th, 2023 at 3:17 PM ^
> And yet, they moved up.
The team ahead of Ohio State (Texas) lost. Of course they moved up.
Would you move them back? They won by 20 against an undefeated team.
October 8th, 2023 at 3:21 PM ^
If you watched the game, you'd know they are absolutely not the #3 team in the country. Whether the polls actually reflect quality of play is another discussion, but they are in no way better than Oklahoma or Texas.
October 8th, 2023 at 3:30 PM ^
OSU looked very mediocre aside from Harrison. They let MD ultimately beat themselves, but they struggled in all aspects except their pass game.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:10 PM ^
To be fair, that's often a very viable strategy with Md.
October 8th, 2023 at 3:21 PM ^
Ohio State benefited from the fact that all eyes were on Texas-Oklahoma and basically no one watched that clown show of a game. And do so it looks to everyone who didn’t watch it like an easy 20 point win over an undefeated team. They won by twenty, yes, but the how and why was absurd.
October 8th, 2023 at 6:22 PM ^
OSU played a miserable first quarter and the run game was awful throughout.
On the plus side, after falling behind 10-0 they did go on a 37-7 run which looks a lot like the score of most of Michigan's wins...so it wasn't all bad.
October 8th, 2023 at 6:37 PM ^
they did go on a 37-7 run
With toughness. 1.9 yards at a time.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
October 8th, 2023 at 7:24 PM ^
A miserable quarter or another bad half? :)
October 8th, 2023 at 7:41 PM ^
Just keep practicing the Georgia Drill.
That's all your boys have to do...practice for Georgia. ;-)
October 8th, 2023 at 8:38 PM ^
Maryland left probably 10 points on the field in the first half, just through unforced errors. The score didn’t really get out of hand in the second half until Maryland fell behind and got desperate. So if they’d had some of those points the game likely would have come down to the fourth quarter.
October 9th, 2023 at 12:46 AM ^
It might’ve LOOKED like a typical Michigan score, but it was hardly a dominant performance. During the 2nd half in which they “rallied”, they scored on 5 drives. Two were legit TD drives where they had to go the full length of the field. But the other three scores came from drives of 33 yards (FG) 17 yards (TD), and 27 yards (FG).
Combine that w the defensive TD they got from the pick 6, and the entire 20 point margin of victory came from either non-offensive plays, or from super short fields.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:33 PM ^
OU > OSU!
October 8th, 2023 at 4:54 PM ^
Most voters don’t watch the games. They just see the final scores
October 8th, 2023 at 7:27 PM ^
They won by 20 against an undefeated team.
This is exactly why Day decided to run up the score in 4th quarter. So people who didn't watch the game, see how poor OSU looked, and how Maryland was in the game for like 3 quarters think that OSU played well
October 8th, 2023 at 3:19 PM ^
I suspect that they moved up to #3 b/c the prior #3 lost.(?) Is it that hard to figure out the predictability of the pollsters?
(I'm not arguing that OSU is the 3rd best team.)
October 8th, 2023 at 3:22 PM ^
Correct. It’s perfectly predictable and how it works. Which is why the AP and Coaches polls are a joke and I look forward to the CFP rankings.
October 8th, 2023 at 5:10 PM ^
Ish. I think the most important statistic is "winning," and this insistence that the rankings should only reflect some amorphous "quality of play" could lead to an Alabama team with four losses being ranked over a Boise State team with none.
Or a team with two losses winning a national championship because they played a much more difficult schedule and lost two early on, but were playing "better" at the end.
In other words ... you're damned right that Miami should drop after losing that game to Georgia Tech. That's why winning the game matters.
October 8th, 2023 at 5:16 PM ^
No question winning the game is what matters most, but after that the how - of both winning and losing - should matter.
October 8th, 2023 at 5:44 PM ^
Winning is great, but the rankings are a flawed process because of anchoring bias.
October 8th, 2023 at 6:43 PM ^
Yep. Made worse by the fact that they are public.
October 8th, 2023 at 8:34 PM ^
Right, but the argument is there are other undefeated teams that should be above them
. . .
October 8th, 2023 at 9:53 PM ^
I am perfectly willing to believe that a four-loss Alabama team could be better than an undefeated Boise State in the correct circumstance.
There is no consensus about whether the rankings are supposed to be the teams with the four best résumés or the four teams that you’d favor on a neutral field over the other ~130. Thus, you get wildly disparate takes.
That said, OSU neither has the #3 best résumé nor would I favor them over everyone except Georgia or Michigan. So, there’s that.
October 8th, 2023 at 3:24 PM ^
I think the polls should reflect quality of play and whether a team deserves to move up or down. If they don't, it's just laziness on the part of coaches or writers or whoever votes on these things.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:13 PM ^
I agree that it should, but this is the AP poll. These writers probably only watch the team they cover, and a prime time game if they don't occur at the same rime.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:30 PM ^
And the coaches obviously don't watch many other games, if any, and many have their assistants fill out the ballot.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:40 PM ^
It seems like intelligent fans watch more football than many writers / AP voters do. It’s recreation for the vast majority of us - and, part of their profession for writers / voters.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:51 PM ^
It seems like having a vote is more an ego thing. I've read many articles, across many sports, that point it out constantly in their writing. Baseball is the worst, I've found. MVP/Cy Young award voters drop it in their articles like I use dick jokes.
And don't get me started om HOF selection committee members...
October 8th, 2023 at 6:48 PM ^
Apparently Harbaugh was watching games on the YouTube TV multi-view during his vacation, er suspension.
October 8th, 2023 at 5:08 PM ^
That's apparent. I was making fun of the fact that Ryan Day complained that everyone is against them and yet here they are, getting the benefit of being The Ohio State.
October 8th, 2023 at 5:17 PM ^
Right! It’s Ohio Against the World (except the poll voters).
October 8th, 2023 at 5:51 PM ^
I think the polls should reflect quality of play and whether a team deserves to move up or down.
Agreed. But it's not that way, there's a formula in these polls for teams moving up & moving down. Which is why these polls don't matter and there's no reason for concern whether a team moves up or down undeservedly.
October 8th, 2023 at 6:05 PM ^
I usually don't concern myself with polls but saw a lot of humor in this one, especially the Stat to Know, which was a negative even as the team jumped a spot. And Ohio State definitely benefits from being Ohio State here. Coaches and writers see the name and immediately view them as a winner and contender for top five, which completely negates Day's "Ohio against the world" narrative. There was a lot of irony here.
October 8th, 2023 at 3:51 PM ^
OSU’s online has been remarkably disappointing. It’s only a matter of time if they don’t figure that out. They are a one man team at this point. Lob it up to Harrison. We’ll see if he stays healthy for the game against the good guys.
October 8th, 2023 at 4:41 PM ^
Respectfully, I like how the OSU OL is playing…