Ohio State 3rd in USA TODAY Coaches Poll Top 25 for Week 12

Just like in AP Top 25 Poll, Ohio State finds themselves up a spot this week following in the footstep's of Stanford's huge home win over Oregon, 26-20. Alabama, of course, handled LSU with relative ease, and Florida State continued to more than look the part in a thorough beating of helpless Wake Forest.

Unlike the AP, the USA TODAY Coaches Poll Top 25 has a very direct impact on Ohio State's postseason aspirations, comprising 1/3rd of the last ever season of BCS standings. The coaches (or more appropriately the nation's sports information directors who cast their ballots on behalf of the too busy to vote football coaches across the country), tend to take a more abstract look at the nation's makeup nationally, often finding themselves a week or two behind trends that those that watched a larger number of games adhere to.

For the Buckeyes, the formula is simple: survive and advance. The ceiling is glass capped to a certain extent – the Buckeyes need either Alabama or Florida State to lose, and based on the early returns in the AP (Ohio State is but 7 points ahead of Baylor, which could correlate with the Harris, the other subjective component of the BCS), may need a Baylor loss ultimately as well – but if Urban Meyer's team continues to win, they'll certainly be in the conversation if not actually in Ohio State's fourth BCS title game ever.

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• 3 reasons the BCS (and rest of the country) does not like Ohio State