TEXAS, Sporting Alert – Ohio State heads into its bye week on top of the 2015 ESPN NCAA College Football Power Rankings for Week 9, the latest release revealed on Sunday, Oct. 25.
The Buckeyes (8-0, Big Ten) jumped one place in this week’s power rankings to No. 1, following their 49-7 victory over Rutgers on Saturday, but Clemson remains in close contact.
After a slow start to the season, in which they had to grind out some games, the defending champions are beginning to show signs of improvement, especially on offense.
In fact, Urban Meyer’s decision to name J.T. Barrett as his starting quarterback over Cardale Jones against Rutgers was the correct choice, as the sophomore starred on the day – going 14 of 18 for 223 yards on passes with two touchdowns and running for another 101 yards and two scores.
The latest shift by the Buckeyes to the top of this week’s ESPN College Football Power Rankings, is a clear sign there is now belief that the Big Ten leaders are peaking at the right time and could become very dangerous heading into the second part of the campaign.
It will be interesting when men from Columbus face-off with two of the Big Ten powerhouses – Michigan State and Michigan in the last two games of the regular season.
The Buckeyes collected 313 points in the poll.
Clemson (7-0), on the back of its 58-0 rout of the Miami Hurricanes, moved three places up to No. 2 in the rankings and had 312 points.
Completing the top five in the rankings are LSU (7-0) at No. 3, Baylor (7-0), who slipped three places in this week’s release, is at No. 4 and TCU (7-0) at No. 5.
The top 10 is completed by Michigan State, Stanford, Alabama, Notre Dame and Florida.
Dropping the biggest this week was Texas A&M, which fell 14 spots, following the defeat to Ole Miss, which makes the biggest jump this week – moving up four spaces to No. 20.
Utah, in the meantime, fell 11 places to No. 14 after losing to USC, which was its first loss of the season.
ESPN NCAA College Football Power Rankings
Week 9 Release – Oct. 25
1 Ohio State 8-0
2 Clemson 7-0
3 LSU 7-0
4 Baylor 7-0
5 TCU 7-0
6 Michigan State 8-0
7 Stanford 6-1
8 Alabama 7-1
9 Notre Dame 6-1
10 Florida 6-1
11 Oklahoma State 7-0
12 Iowa 7-0
13 Oklahoma 6-1
14 Utah 6-1
15 Memphis 7-0
16 Michigan 5-2
17 Houston 7-0
18 Florida State 6-1
19 Temple 7-0
20 Ole Miss 6-2
21 Toledo 7-0
22 Duke 6-1
23 Pittsburgh 6-1
24 UCLA 5-2
25 Navy 5-1
