COLUMBUS, Ohio — Regardless of the season’s shaky start, Ohio State still stands as the standard bearer for Big Ten football. Five consecutive conference championships. An in-conference winning streak, including championship games, that dates back to 2018 and covers 22 games. One of only two Big Ten programs to ever qualify for the College Football Playoff and the only one to do so since 2015. And yet, the No. 11 Buckeyes resume conference play in earnest on Saturday at Rutgers in an unfamiliar position — looking up at multiple Big Ten opponents in the AP Top 25. Sure, on a national scale, Ohio State steers into that second-tier identity. It cannot match Alabama’s stature as emperor of the SEC. It does not benefit from Clemson’s southern location and (previous) cakewalk through the ACC. When the Buckeyes break through on a national scale, they would argue, they do so by overcoming…
Continue Reading: Where is Ohio State in the Big Ten Power Rankings as conference play resumes? College football Monday Madness
