It’s prediction time college football fans! We are less than a week away from the start of the Ohio State football season, and this time the Buckeyes open up with a massive matchup with No. 1 Texas in Columbus. To be fair, the entire offseason has seen predictions and revised predictions, but now that we are on the doorstep, there’s one last prediction drop from the national and local media alike.
ESPN got into the mix with its last College Football Playoff preseason predictions this past week, and if you follow this site, we know you are interested in what the “worldwide leader” said about the Buckeyes’ chances of getting into the 12-team field.
All told, 12 “experts” from ESPN all provided their 12 CFP teams ahead of all the action kicking off, and there are two Big Ten teams that were selected to be in the field unanimously — and yes, one of those is YOUR Ohio State Buckeyes. You can probably guess the other one, because the team has gotten a lot of offseason buzz ever since OSU hoisted the CFP trophy. That other unanimous selection is James Franklin and Penn State. Now all Franklin has to do is go out and win a few big games to get it done, something that has been a major challenge to date.
Other Big Ten teams mentioned include Oregon, with all but one expert picking the Ducks to make the CFP, Illinois, and Nebraska, but there’s no sign (see what I did there), of Michigan by any of the experts when identifying teams to play for all the confetti and trophies.
As an average seed, Penn State nudged Ohio State if you average out all 12 of the experts’ predictions. OSU had an average seed of 4.42, while the Nittany Lions clocked in with an average of 2.25.
Here’s a look at all of the voting from ESPN:
Andrea Adelson: 1. Clemson 2. Penn State 3. Texas 4. LSU 5. Georgia 6. Ohio State 7. Notre Dame 8. Miami 9. Alabama 10. Iowa State 11. Nebraska 12. Boise State
Kyle Bonagura: 1. Texas 2. Penn State 3. Ohio State 4. Clemson 5. Georgia 6. Notre Dame 7. Alabama 8. Oregon 9. LSU 10. Arizona State 11. Miami 12. Boise State
Bill Connelly: 1. Penn State 2. Alabama 3. Texas 4. Ohio State 5. Georgia 6. Notre Dame 7. Texas A&M 8. Clemson 9. Oregon 10. Boise State 11. Miami 12. Kansas State
Heather Dinich: 1. Penn State, 2. Clemson, 3. Texas 4. LSU 5. Georgia 6. Ohio State 7. Notre Dame 8. Alabama 9. Miami 10. Oregon 11. Kansas State 12. Boise State
David Hale: 1. Ohio State 2. Texas 3. Clemson 4. Penn State 5. Notre Dame 6. Georgia 7. Oregon 8. LSU 9. Texas A&M 10. Kansas State 11. Miami 12. Toledo
Eli Lederman: 1. Penn State 2. Texas 3. Clemson 4. Ohio State 5. Notre Dame 6. Alabama 7. Oregon 8. Georgia 9. Arizona State 10. LSU 11. Miami 12. Boise State
Max Olson: 1. Texas. 2. Penn State. 3. Notre Dame. 4. Clemson. 5. Alabama. 6. Oregon. 7. Georgia. 8. Ohio State. 9. Texas Tech. 10. LSU. 11. Utah. 12. Boise State
Adam Rittenberg: 1. Texas 2. Penn State 3. Clemson 4. Georgia 5. Alabama 6. Ohio State 7. Notre Dame 8. Oregon 9. Miami 10. Iowa State 11. Boise State 12. Illinois
Mark Schlabach: 1. Texas 2. Clemson 3. Penn State 4. Georgia 5. Ohio State 6. Alabama 7. Notre Dame 8. Oregon 9. Miami 10. LSU 11. Arizona State 12. Boise State
Jake Trotter: 1. Texas, 2. Clemson, 3. Penn State, 4. LSU, 5. Ohio State, 6. Notre Dame, 7. Georgia, 8. Oregon, 9. Illinois, 10. South Carolina, 11. Texas Tech, 12. Tulane
Paolo Uggetti: 1. Ohio State, 2. Georgia, 3. Texas 4. Penn State 5. Notre Dame 6. Clemson 7. Oregon 8. LSU 9. Arizona State 10. Miami 11. South Carolina 12. Boise State
Dave Wilson: 1. Texas 2. Penn State 3. Clemson 4. Ohio State 5. Georgia 6. Notre Dame 7. Alabama 8. Oregon 9. LSU 10. Arizona State 11. Miami 12. Boise State
It’s almost time to kick this thing off, college football and Ohio State fans. We are officially in game week, and we’ll have plenty leading up to the game this Saturday, so come back and check in with us.
Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion. Follow Phil Harrison on X.
This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: ESPN experts unanimously predict two Big Ten teams to make the College Football Playoff
Reporting by Phil Harrison, Buckeyes Wire / Buckeyes Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
