NEW YORK – The Buckeyes are No. 3 in the first College Football Playoff selection committee rankings of the season, released Tuesday night.
Clemson, LSU, and Alabama are the other teams in the top four.
Notre Dame was fifth and Baylor was sixth. Michigan State was seventh, with TCU, Iowa and Florida rounding out the top 10.
Michigan (17th) and Northwestern (21st) were the other teams from the Big Ten to make ithe committee’s list of its top 25 teams.
Clemson (8-0), LSU (7-0) and Ohio State (8-0, 4-0 Big Ten) are among 11 unbeaten teams in FBS, nearly quadruple the number there was last season when the committee started ranking teams. Alabama and Notre Dame each have one loss.
Last year the top four teams in the first playoff rankings were Mississippi State, Florida State, Auburn and Mississippi. Only the Seminoles reached the playoff. Ohio State, the eventual national champion, was 16th in the first rankings.