Put this one in the things that make you scratch your head category. We continue to see a mysterious and mesmerizing lack of respect for what the Ohio State football team can do in 2019. We’ve seen a bizarre preseason ranking of teams already by ESPN that has OSU out of the top ten, and now this.
The “worldwide leader in sports programming” released the top nine odds of teams to reach the College Football Playoff this coming year, and the Buckeyes are nowhere to be found.
Look, I get that these things are somewhat subjective, but the ESPN Playoff Predictor actually uses some sort of metrics to determine what teams have the best chance based on analytics and algorithms, but this seems off. Maybe a glitch in the matrix exists, or the Russians have somehow gotten a hold of the programming.
In fact, somehow Michigan is apparently ahead of Ohio State, as are seemingly half the SEC, and even Oregon. According to the odds, the Buckeyes have a less than 1% chance of making the playoff despite returning a slew of talent on defense, depth at the skill positions, and one of the highest rated quarterback recruits ever to transfer as a potential starter.
Something tells me if this were an Ohio State team that resided in the land of sweet tea and grits, it would be getting the benefit of the doubt. But no.
I guess we’ll just have to wait to see how this all shakes out, but if I were a betting man …
