Ohio State is building a strong case to be ranked as the best team in the country. After a dominant win against Wisconsin in Week 4, the Buckeyes have now jumped ahead of Alabama for No. 2 in the CBS Sports 131, our comprehensive ranking of every FBS college football team.
We’ve released just five editions of the CBS Sports 131 this season, and this latest update marks the fourth different combination for the top three of Georgia, Ohio State and Alabama. This battle for supremacy will ultimately be settled on the field, and we do have a long way to go before we could get those hypothetical matchups, but we see in these rankings how preseason expectations are being erased and replaced by a judgement of what each team has accomplished to this point in the season.
Shedding preseason expectations is a theme for ranking college football teams as we get into October, and it can both make the process difficult for voters and also provide some rapid adjustments. Some teams fly up the rankings after “prove-it” wins while others may see dramatic drops after another week of failing to perform to the level of a high preseason ranking.
One great example of this shifting focus is the fallout from Minnesota’s win at Michigan State. The Golden Gophers have been slowly climbing up the rankings with dominant wins as a heavy favorite, but it took defeating the Spartans in East Lansing, Michigan, to really get our voters’ attention. Now 4-0, Minnesota sits in the top 15 while Michigan State, a team that started the year in the top 20 of our rankings and peaked at No. 14, has fallen outside the top 50 as two straight losses reveal a form that is far from preseason expectations. The “prove-it” win gave Minnesota the boost it needed, and until Michigan State starts beefing up its profile, it will find itself shuffling up and down the crowded middle tier of our 131-team rankings.
One team that’s suddenly in need of a “prove-it” win after Week 4 is Oklahoma. On paper, the Sooners look like one of the best teams in the country, and did flex their muscles against most of the competition prior to Saturday’s loss to Kansas State. But now Oklahoma stands as a one-loss team with its only wins coming to UTEP, Kent State and Nebraska, so it’s worth debating whether Brent Venables’ group deserves to be ahead of other undefeated teams — like Kansas, which is 4-0 with better wins. Meanwhile, Kansas…
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