Ohio State demolishing Michigan should lock up No. 1 seed in playoff

After handling the Michigan Wolverines, the Ohio State Buckeyes should be the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff after the Big Ten Championship.

In a game that many people thought the Michigan Wolverines would challenge them, the Ohio State Buckeyes win yet again over their rival. Ohio State went a perfect 12-0 (9-0) during the regular season and looks to be the best team in the Power 5 entering Championship Weekend.

In short, the Buckeyes will stay as the No. 1 team in the nation entering next week’s conference title bout in Indianapolis. Should the Buckeyes defeat the winner of the Wisconsin Badgers vs. the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis next weekend, Ohio State will be the No. 1 seed in the 2020 College Football Playoff, and deservedly so.

Ohio State has been the most complete team in college football this season. The only teams in the Buckeyes’ stratosphere have been the LSU Tigers and the Clemson Tigers. While LSU has a dominant offense and plays in a tough SEC, the Bayou Bengals’ defense is the reason they won’t be No. 1 if they beat the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship next Saturday in Atlanta.

As for Clemson, the Tigers have been an utterly dominant team like the Buckeyes have been this year. Frankly, Clemson has been the most dominant team in the Power 5 since losing to the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Allstate Sugar Bowl during the 2018 College Football Playoff. However, the Tigers won’t even be the No. 2 seed if they win the ACC Championship over the Virginia Cavaliers because of how bad the ACC has been as a football conference in 2019.

So Ohio State will have been both dominant and battle-tested, as well as the most complete team in college football. Regardless of if you live in the south or on the west coast, you have to respect the job Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day has done in his first year since taking over for Urban Meyer in Columbus. This looks to be the best Buckeyes team in half a decade.

That 2014 Ohio State team won the inaugural College Football Playoff by upsetting Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and then knocking off Marcus Mariota‘s Oregon Ducks in the national title. The 2014 Buckeyes were loaded with NFL talents such as Ezekiel Elliott and Joey Bosa. The 2019 Buckeyes have Justin Fields, J.K. Dobbins and Chase Young, all Heisman Trophy contenders.

Fields will be a first-round pick as soon as he’s eligible in 2021. Dobbins might very well win the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s best running back. And then, there’s Young, who has an outside shot to be the first defensive player to win the Heisman Trophy since Charles Woodson did it at Michigan back in 1997. But he’s a lock to win the Chuck Bednarik Award already, he’s so good.

Overall, Ohio State going into its archrival’s building and opening a can of whoop-ass was more than plenty enough to ensure that the Buckeyes will be the No. 1 seed entering Championship Weekend. All the Buckeyes need to do to guarantee they’re the top seed in the field is beat the Big Ten West winner. They’ve already clinched a Playoff spot by going undefeated in Big Ten play.

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