Ryan Day, Ohio State know No. 1 College Football Playoff ranking means 'absolutely nothing'

In the previous nine years of the College Football Playoff, the seven programs ranked as the first No. 1 teams made the CFP. Ohio State will try to follow that path this year after coming in atop the first top 25 last week, even if it generated some discussion about the “eye test.”

When it comes down to it, though, there are four more reveals — starting with Tuesday night’s at 7 p.m. ET — before the final rankings come out. That means a lot could happen on the football field and change the top four dramatically.

That’s why Ryan Day said the Buckeyes know the initial No. 1 ranking doesn’t necessarily mean anything. It’s all about what happens with the final reveal on Dec. 3.

“I think you have so many guys on our team that have just kind of been through all this before, and they know it means absolutely nothing,” Day said. “Their goal is to win the whole thing and to be the No. 1 team at the end of the year. We want to win them all, and that’s all that matters. At the end, they’ll rank us. But we’re just going to try and win them all, and it continues this Saturday.”

Ohio State entered Week 10 with the best resume of any team ranked in the first CFP top 25. The Buckeyes had top-15 wins over Notre Dame and Penn State, making them the only program to have two such victories.

Add in a victory over Wisconsin, and CFP committee chairman Boo Corrigan said Ohio State did enough to warrant a No. 1 ranking.

“To your point … the win against Penn State, to win at Notre Dame, the win at Wisconsin, they’ve proven they can do it at home, they’ve proven they can do it on the road,” Corrigan said. “They have explosive plays. They have a receiver, Marvin Harrison, Jr., who’s clearly one of the top players in the country.

“As we look at it, as we evaluate it, it is part of the overall evaluation, but a top 5 defense that’s given up about 10 points a game really does play into it, as well. To pick completely on one side when the other side is so dominant, and the offense is really, really good, so we’ve got to take all that into account as we’re looking at it, and we came to the conclusion as a committee that they deserved the No. 1 ranking.”

All eyes will once again be on ESPN Tuesday night for the second College Football Playoff reveal. It’ll be interesting to see if the Buckeyes top the rankings once again.