ESPN's Heather Dinich breaks down Ohio State's College Football Playoff chances with loss to Penn State

On the ESPN CFP Rankings Show on Tuesday night, the final week the show will not feature actual College Football Playoff committee rankings, a panel of ESPN analysts broke down various scenarios, including a tricky one for Ohio State.

Host Rece Davis asked analyst Heather Dinich what might happen if Ohio State loses this weekend at Penn State.

“They will be in a very precarious position, because as we sit here today there are two two-loss SEC teams already ranked ahead of the one-loss Buckeyes in ESPN’s strength-of-record metric,” Dinich said. “That’s LSU and Alabama, which have to play each other.”

That would presumably put Ohio State in a head-to-head battle against those teams for positioning. And depending on what else happens across the country, that could be highly problematic for the Buckeyes.

ESPN’s strength-of-record metric tends to favor SEC schedules right now, and that could work against Ohio State.

Alabama and LSU, in particular, could throw a real wrench into the works for the team in Columbus, Ohio.

“The point is if either one of those runs the table and Ohio State also finishes with two losses, you’ve got a two-loss SEC team out there that’s going to have a better resume,” Dinich said. “Because Ohio State still has chances to impress with games against Indiana and ahh kinda Michigan, but right now their best win is against Iowa. What if Georgia runs the table, loses in the SEC Championship Game, that is one of the best two-loss resumes you’ll find in the country.”

Of course, for now it’s all speculation. We’ll have a much better idea where things stand next week when the rankings are for real.

Still, it’ll be a a concerning sign for the Buckeyes if they can’t top the Nittany Lions.

“So Ohio State doesn’t want to enter that debate, because they might not win it,” Dinich said.