The start of the Big Ten season saw Ohio State rise to the top of the FPI college football rankings after a 52-17 over Nebraska. ESPN releases the rankings every week to rank the top 25 teams in college football, and the results reflect a team’s probability of making it to the college football playoffs based on the strength of its schedule and the number of expected wins. Even though the Big Ten conference kicked off its season a few weeks after the ACC and the SEC, analysts feel that Ohio State Buckeyes did enough in its win over the Huskers to rank as the best team in college football.

Ohio State Buckeyes rose to the top of the FPI rankings after beating Nebraska last Saturday

While the Ohio State Buckeyes are currently favored to win the Big Ten, they will have to go through several tough opponents in the conference. Penn State is currently ranked sixth in the FPI rankings despite its loss to Indiana in its first game of the season. The Nittany Lions will face Ohio State Buckeyes next Saturday in a match that could decide the winner of the Big Ten conference. Apart from Penn State, the Michigan Wolverines will fancy their chances of upsetting the Buckeyes. Michigan currently ranks as the 11th best team in college football after their 49-24 win over Minnesota. According to an ESPN simulation, the Wolverines have a 5.2% chance of winning the conference.

The biggest surprise from the latest college football rankings was Clemson’s fall to the third position.

Clemson dropped to third on the rankings after their unconvincing win over Syracuse

Clemson was a 46.5-point favorite in Saturday’s game against Syracuse, but the Tigers struggled during the match, and they had to score 21 points in the final 16 minutes to secure a 47-21 win.

Clemson’s coach, Dabo Swinney, clashed with the media after he received questions about his team’s lack of intensity to start the match. Coach Swinney accused reporters at his post-match conference of focusing on his team’s mistake. Trevor Lawrence threw the first pick-six of his career against Syracuse on his way to completing 27 of his 43 attempted passes to record 289 yards and two touchdown scores.

Lawrence admitted that his team had not played well, and they would need to work on their intensity in their remaining games of the season. While Clemson appears to be struggling to maintain its early-season momentum, Alabama has slowly moved up the rankings over the past few weeks. The Crimson Tide is currently the second-best team in the country after its resounding 48-17 victory over Tennessee. Alabama has the best-ranked offense in college football, and the team could make the college football playoff game for the sixth time in its history.