COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Buckeyes needed two things to happen to play for the national championship. They needed to beat Michigan, which they did, and they needed Alabama to lose which they did.
Ohio State took care of business, holding off Michigan in Ann Arbor, then watched a few hours later on their team bus as Auburn knocked off Alabama on the final play of the game.
“It was absolutely nuts for fifteen minutes,” Buckeye coach Urban Meyer said.
As a result, the Buckeyes moved up to No. 2 in the BCS rankings, behind Florida State.
Ohio State faces No. 10 Michigan State on Saturday for the Big Ten title (8:17 p.m./FOX) and Meyer says two players ejected from the Michigan game for fighting will not be suspended for the championship game.
Auburn, which shook up the national title race by upsetting Alabama in their annual rivalry game Saturday, is No. 3. The top three teams in the standings are separated by only a few percentage points, so another shakeup is possible next week after the teams play in their conference championship games.
Florida State will play Duke in the ACC and Auburn faces No. 5 Missouri in the SEC.
The Crimson Tide had been No. 1 since the preseason as it pursued a third consecutive national championship. But Alabama fell to No. 4 after being stunned at Auburn on Saturday, losing 34-28 on the last play of the game. Chris Davis caught Adam Griffith’s 57-yard field-goal attempt near the back of the end zone, then sprinted up the left side before cutting right with nothing but teammates surrounding him, and scored the game-winning touchdown with no time left on the clock.
That cleared the way for the Seminoles to be No. 1 for the first time since Oct. 1, 2000, the season after their last national title. Jameis Winston threw three touchdown passes to Kelvin Benjamin to help Florida State clobber Florida 37-7 and improve to 12-0 for the first time since 1999.