Buckeyes Climb The AP Top 25 Poll

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- What's brewing today with the 2009 Ohio State Buckeyes ...

BUCKEYES BUZZ: The Buckeyes climbed four spots to No. 9 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 on Sunday.

There were several interesting bits of ebb and flow in the rankings.

Florida, Texas and Alabama again were 1-2-3. No surprise there.

But LSU, even with somewhat of a scare on Saturday, still climbed from seventh to No. 4, with Boise State's victory over Bowling Green earning it a move from No. 8 to No. 5.

Four one-loss teams - Virginia Tech, Southern California, Oklahoma and Ohio State - fill the next four rungs, followed by Cincinnati, making its highest appearance ever, at No. 10.

The only other Big Ten teams in the Top 25 are Iowa, from unranked to No. 13 after the upset of Penn State, the Nittany Lions 10 spots worse at No. 15 and Michigan at No. 22 after a controversial win at home against Indiana.

ONE MAN'S OPINION: The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer's Doug Lesmerises, the Ohio State beat writer at the state's largest newspaper, has been getting a lot of attention for what many consider an offbeat approach to his balloting.

Lesmerises' vote is based almost entirely on results - not history, not past national championships, not prospective head-to-head matchups, not potential. He re-evaluates his ballot each week based on a team's current status. And he doesn't consider the previous week's ballot when he votes the following week; in other words, if Ohio State is No. 22 one week and wins, that doesn't mean the Buckeyes start at No. 22 when he considers his ballot the next week. He basically tears it up and starts over each week.

Here is his overview on his vote this week:

"Alabama is a clear No. 1 to me. Teams No. 2 through No. 7 could be in any order and I could understand it. I think those six teams have similar resumes," he writes. "I probably had USC too low last week at No. 25. Oklahoma has not done much so far in terms of quality opponents to make up for the BYU loss, with blowouts of an FCS school and Tulane, so Oklahoma remains lower on my ballot than what I expect from the overall poll."

Here's his top 10: Alabama, Boise State, Houston, Florida, Iowa, Cincinnati, Texas, Virginia Tech, Auburn and LSU.

Regarding Ohio State, he writes, "Dominated Illinois after dominating Toledo, won last two games 68-0 after a 3-point loss to USC. Why not No. 15: Last week I threw out my adherence to the head-to-head rule to rank Ohio State ahead of USC, and on a second look this week, decided that probably wasn't right. So Ohio State is right behind the Trojans. And compared to teams like Michigan and TCU, the Buckeyes have a similar group of victories, but that one loss pushes the Buckeyes below them."

He does not have Cal, Arizona, Utah, Penn State or Mississippi in his top 25.

If you want to see more, check out his logic at:
http://www.cleveland.com/buckeyeblog/index.ssf/2009/09/alabama-boise -state-houston-fl.html

AND ANOTHER VIEWPOINT: Each week, the 14 college football writers, editors and producers at Sports Illustrated and SI.com vote to determine the 16 teams that deserve berths in a playoff bracket.

If there were a 16-team playoff instead of the Bowl Championship Series, and if that playoff began next weekend, here's what the staff at SI foresees as the first-round matchups:

No. 1 Florida (209 points) vs. No. 16 Auburn (18); No. 2 Alabama (208) vs. No. 15 Miami (24); No. 3 Texas (197) vs. No. 14 Oregon (28); No. 4 LSU (158) vs. No. 13 Iowa (72); No. 5 Virginia Tech (154) vs. No. 12 Ohio State (77); No. 6 Boise State (140) vs. No. 11 TCU (81); No. 7 Cincinnati (130) vs. No. 10 USC (105); and No. 8 Oklahoma (112) vs. No. 9 Houston (107)

NOVEMBER TO REMEMBER: Good news, fans: the Buckeyes will be heavily favored in their next five games - at Indiana, Wisconsin, at Purdue, Minnesota and New Mexico State.

Bad news, fans: The last three games are the only three ranked Big Ten teams this week - at Penn State, Iowa, at Michigan.