Ohio State Buckeyes Get Another Top 25 Win Against Minnesota, Improve College Football Playoff Resume

It was only by a touchdown, but on the road against another Top 25 Big Ten team in terrible weather, Urban Meyer’s Ohio State Buckeyes deserve a tremendous amount of credit for getting.

Jerry Kill’s Minnesota Golden Gophers ate no joke, and Ohio State trounced them until late in the fourth quarter.

So how does this affect their College Football Playoff rankings?

We know already that the Selection Committee doesn’t have a lot of respect for the Big Ten, but they respected Minnesota enough to put them in at No. 25, and back to back Top 25 wins by the Buckeyes on the road has to count for something, right?

Ohio State could have a case for jumping Baylor, who has played nobody. But when you take into account that TCU is a team that blew out Minnesota even more than the Buckeyes and then Baylor, another one-loss team, beat TCU, it’s hard to sell this team being any better than those two.

But Ohio State’s blowout over Minnesota, in some ways, could be a little bit more impressive than TCU’s.

For starters, TCU was at home. And if you followed the game Saturday, Ohio State had complete control for the most part.

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J.T. Barrett took the wind out of the sails for Minnesota early.

Barrett ran 86 yards for the first touchdown and connected with Jalin Marshall on a 57-yard touchdown pass for the second, giving the Buckeyes a 14-0 first quarter lead.

Minnesota still showed they are a good team and came back to tie it at 14 behind the legs of David Cobb. A field goal by Sean Nuernberger gave Ohio State a 17-14 lead at halftime, and then Barrett threw touchdown passes to Michael Thomas in the third quarter and Evan Spencer in the fourth quarter to give the Buckeyes a 31-14 lead.

Minnesota made the score 31-24 after another touchdown by Cobb and a field goal by Ryan Santoso, but for the most part the game was already in hand.

So when you see the flow of the game, take into account that Ohio State had 3 turnovers in the wet snow, and they had control for the most part, you could sell this team over others now based on eye test and schedule strength.

But there’s no way to be sure. They need to keep winning and still keep hoping for help.