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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/usffan on 2025-08-21 15:41:37+00:00.

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here.

Ohio State (high = 1 (4 votes), low = 6) is the preseason #2 team in the countdown and the top ranked team in the B1G. This has to be the year for Ryan Day, right? He hasn’t appeared in the B1G championship game since the COVID season (against Northwestern, making it feel even more like a lifetime ago) and has a 4 year losing streak to That Team Up North. That’s the longest championship game drought since the conference has held championship games! Honestly, it’s a wonder he held onto his job at all! Oh wait, I forgot the rule about how when the CFP expands, Ohio State is required to win the national championship! Which they did in fairly resounding fashion, pounding Tennessee in the SEC’s takeover of Columbus, then routing #1 Oregon in the Rose Bowl to avenge their rule-rewriting loss to the Ducks before beating both Texas and Notre Dame by double digits on the way to a convincing national championship. By winning their 9th claimed national championship, trailing only Auburn in natty’s garnered in the past year, that seemingly solidifies the answer to the question of whether the Buckeyes can be counted as a blue blood. (Most of this paragraph is dripping with sarcasm for anybody who lacks the humor gene).

Roster outlook

Ohio State had pretty much gone all in in 2024, keeping their 2023 team largely together where they only lost 4 NFL draft picks heading into the season. Now that they accomplished the mission of bringing home a national championship, many of them moved on, which is why the Buckeyes rank 101st in the country in returning production. A team record-tying 14 players were drafted this year, including 4 first rounders (WR Emeka Egbuka, OG Donovan Jackson, DT Tyleik Williams and OT Josh Simmons), plus both RBs (Quinshon Judkins to the Cleveland Department of Corrections and TreVeyon Henderson to the Patriots), DLs JT Tuimoloau, Jack Sawyer and Jordan Hancock, LB Cody Simon and DBs Lathan Ransom, Jordan Hancock and Denzel Burke), plus QB Will Howard. Not included in there is both coordinators (OC Chip Kelly to the Raiders and DC Jim Knowles to Penn State). In other words, the Buckeyes are replacing all 4 team captains, their entire offensive backfield, a first round WR, 80% of their starting OL, 8 defensive starters and both coordinators. How the hell are they #2? Well, for starters, they DO return WR Jeremiah Smith, who probably would have been a top 10 draft pick at worst in last year’s draft if he were eligible to be included. They also get back WR Carnell Tate, who amassed 700+ receiving yards. They’ll both be catching passes from former 5 star recruit redshirt freshman Julian Sayin. The running game will fall to James Peoples, who had almost 200 yards last season across 8 games. But the team is in need of replenishing, which is why it’s important to note that Day brought in the #1 recruiting class in the B1G (4th in the country) for the 3rd time in the last 4 years (trailing only Oregon in 2024), meaning he’s confident he’s got the horses to plug in. To that point, he’s got 10 players total who were national top 100 recruits (including four 5 stars, including as yet unmentioned CJ Hicks, Carnell Tate and Caleb Downs) back. The notable additions through the portal, where Day’s class ranked 7th in the B1G and 26th nationally, are Rice LT Ethan Onianwa, Purdue TE Max Klare and North Carolina DE Beau Atkinson.

Schedule and outlook

Right out of the gate, Ohio State starts by hosting the only team we haven’t yet discussed this offseason (spoiler alert), Texas and Arch Manning. That game will undoubtedly determine who carries the #1 ranking into October, as the rest of the schedule for both teams lightens up immediately. For the Buckeyes, that includes hosting Grambling and Ohio before making a west coast road trip to Husky Stadium, a place they haven’t visited since that glorious 2007 season. Following a homecoming tilt with Minnesota, they travel to both Illinois and Wisconsin before the main course on the schedule, Penn State in the Shoe. The remainder of the slate is a road trip to Purdue, home games against UCLA and Rutgers and then the little matter of the finale in the Big House. There’s a ton riding on new players and new coordinators, so it’s not a stretch to imagine them needing to actually beat Michigan in The Game to get into the CFP, but there’s clearly enough talent on this roster to get the job done.