College Football Rankings 2016: Projected AP Top 25 after Week 9

The Buckeyes followed up their first loss of the season to Penn State by nearly suffering a second straight defeat at home. Northwestern held its own against Ohio State in Columbus, keeping the game win 10 points throughout the entire day. J.T. Barrett once again played sound but underwhelming football, throwing for 223 yards without either a touchdown or an interception. The OSU defense allowed more than five yards a carry to the Wildcats, and only a Clayton Thorson interception derailed Northwestern.

Ohio State has dropped off a bit in the past few weeks, but thanks to the losses of others all around them they are still in strong position in the AP Top 25. Urban Meyer and his staff have done a great job coaching up a young team, but they are hardly guaranteed to run out the table after the way they’ve performed over the past fortnight. They start November with Nebraska coming to Columbus, then take to the road on consecutive weeks for away games against Maryland and Michigan State. Get through those three tests, and they should manage to set up a winner-take-all affair for the Big Ten East.