The Ohio State football team continues to improve and impress. Many are taking a wait-and-see approach until the Buckeyes play a ranked team through this recent run, but it’s hard to look at the team’s performance and not see that the offense is playing at a highly skilled level and the defense improving.
With the dynamic of this team changing, some of the national media and metrics are starting to take notice. One of those metrics is FiveThirtyEight’s College Football Playoff Predictions that were recently updated after last week’s slate of games.
Ohio State had been behind Cincinnati and Michigan recently when it comes to its chances of getting into the final four teams, but after Week 8, OSU has now vaulted ahead of both and now has the fourth-best odds of making the playoff at 36 percent. The three teams ahead of the Buckeyes are Georgia (72%), Alabama (52%), and Oklahoma (45%). Rounding out the top ten are Cincinnati (33%), Michigan (25%), Pittsburgh (21%), Oregon (20%), Iowa (13%), and Michigan State (12%).
These will change weekly, so stay with us as we follow what FiveThirtyEight says after each victory Ohio State can pile up. If these projections are right, it appears as though OSU may control its own destiny at this point in a loaded Big Ten. In fact, if you want to have a little fun and play with the model a bit, having the Bucks win out gives them a 98 percent chance at the CFP.
Of course, time will tell.
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