Ohio State may have struggled early in the fourth quarter of this past Saturday's game against Miami (Ohio), but after finding their mode and putting on a display that echoed some of the more prolific Urban Meyer offenses of yesteryear, the Buckeyes pulled out an emphatic, dominant 56-10 victory over the RedHawks. And bloggers and writers across the Internet have taken notice.
Despite being out of the mix to play in the Big Ten Championship Game or for that matter being able to compete for a spot in a BCS bowl, Ohio State is slowly but surely making moves. The Buckeyes find themselves after week one now amongst the top-15 teams in the nation, checking in at fourteenth in the latest BlogPoll Top 25.
We ranked the Buckeyes eighth in the country this past week, and find ourselves in relatively good company. Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports, fellow Buckeye blogging brethren Men of the Scarlet & Gray, B1G bloggers Fight for Iowa, and Bowling Green bloggers Falcon Blog all ranks Ohio State similarly at #8. Our SBN B1G comrades Black Heart Gold Pants feel the most strongly about the Bucks, ranking them fourth overall, the highest such ballot in the BlogPoll.
Michigan State finished highest amongst Big Ten teams, checking in at ninth nationally. Nebraska was second, at no. 13, with Wisconsin no. 17, and Michigan bringing up the rear, falling all the way to no. 19.
At the blog micro level, we dodged any of the good (or bad) distinctions this week in terms of the extremeness of our punditry. We'll take it.
Check out the BlogPoll Top 25 as a whole after the jump and leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Results for Week 1
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Rankings 2011