The reigning champion often enters as the favorite, but the Buckeyes are even more stocked than the average reigning champion. Now let’s see what happens. Confused? Check out the advanced-stats glossary here. 1. Perceptions change quickly The numbers get plenty of things wrong. Small sample sizes assure that. Individual games, great or terrible, carry quite a bit of weight, injuries and hot/cold streaks haven’t been put into proper context yet, etc. Still, the numbers often see things before we do. Heading into Week 12 of 2014, Mississippi State was No. 1 in the College Football Playoff rankings, with Oregon No. 2, Florida State No. 3, and a boatload of teams fighting for the No. 4 spot: TCU, Alabama, Arizona State, Baylor. Ohio State, still losing the perceptions battle thanks to a strange home loss to Virginia Tech, languished in eighth place, ahead of only two other one-loss teams (Nebraska and Duke). The numbers, however, noticed that since the loss to the Hokies, the Buckeyes had been nearly perfect. They were up to No. 3 in the F/+ rankings, behind only Alabama and an Ole Miss team that had begun to fade. And then they kept right on playing great ball. They cruised past Michigan State in East Lansing. They jumped out to an early lead and kept their distance against Minnesota…
Continue Reading: Winning repeat championships is hard, but Ohio State has an excellent chance
