Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN crew size up potential No. 1 teams besides Ohio State in CFP rankings

Ohio State clocked in at No. 1 in the very first College Football Playoff rankings of 2023. But the Buckeyes aren’t considered the clear best team, even by current ESPN analyst and former Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit.

The Buckeyes placed atop the rankings by virtue of a pair of stellar wins, over Notre Dame and Penn State. But Herbstreit and his colleagues don’t think Ohio State is the team playing the best in the country right now.

“No. I don’t think so. Not right now,” Herbstreit said when asked if Ohio State is currently the best team in the country.

His fellow studio analysts — Joey Galloway, Booger McFarland and Greg McElroy — all concurred, and named unique teams as their current No. 1.

For Galloway, it remains Georgia. McFarland is rolling with Florida State, and McElroy has yet to move off Michigan as the No. 1 team.

And though they have one loss, Herbstreit said he wouldn’t want to have to face Oregon right now.

“I’m going to say, and you can get mad at me because they lost to Washington: I wouldn’t want to play Oregon right now. If you’re asking me who I think the best team is, not the most deserving, I’m not saying they should be No. 1, if you’re asking me who I would not want to play, it would be Oregon on a neutral site,” Herbstreit said.

Galloway pointed out that since Washington defeated Oregon nearly a month ago, the squads have headed in diverging directions. Both are 2-0 but have looked very different going about it.

“Since the Oregon-Washington game, if you said, ‘Who looks like the better team?’ It’s not close. Oregon looks like the better team,” Galloway said.

The whole discussion spurred host Rece Davis to make an overall point about the top teams and the general level of parity among the Top 5 or so teams. Basically any of the Top 5 teams — the remaining Power 5 undefeateds — could’ve placed in the top spot on Tuesday without anyone raising too much of an issue.

“You know, I think one of the fascinating things about this is any of the Top 5 teams, that if they had been No. 1, I don’t really think you could have a big argument with any of them. I don’t know that there’s that big separation between one and two as in the past,” Davis said.