Ohio State's path to the College Football Playoff appears clear now: Just beat Northwestern in next week's Big Ten Championship Game.
Going into this weekend's games, the scenario that appeared to pose the biggest threat to Ohio State's national championship hopes – other than a loss – was one in which Florida beat Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, Clemson beat Notre Dame in the ACC Championship Game and all four finished with 10-1 records.
The last part of that scenario is now off the table after Florida suffered its second loss of the season to LSU on Saturday night.
Unranked LSU upset Florida on its own home field on Saturday night, 37-34, after Cade York made a 57-yard field goal with 23 seconds to play – aided by a foolish penalty by Florida cornerback Marco Wilson, who extended LSU's eventual game-winning drive by throwing an LSU player's shoe after a third-down stop.
Marco Wilson just committed 1 of the worst penalties Ive ever seen. #Gators pic.twitter.com/tFaBd2ZVfm
— Darren Heitner (@DarrenHeitner) December 13, 2020
While the Gators would have been a very real threat to jump up from their No. 6 ranking and make the CFP if they had just one loss and won the SEC championship, a two-loss team has never made the CFP. And there aren't any other likely candidates to jump the Buckeyes as long as they win next week. No. 5 Texas A&M also didn't play this week, and it plays unranked Tennessee next week, while Ohio State will play a Northwestern team that should move up from its No. 14 spot in the rankings after a 28-10 win over Illinois on Saturday.
That said, you can count on Florida coach Dan Mullen lobbying hard for his team if the Gators manage to upset the Crimson Tide next Saturday in Atlanta.
"I guess the best thing to do would have been to play less games because you seem to get rewarded for not playing this year in college football."
— John Talty (@JTalty) December 13, 2020
After his first loss, Dan tried to shift blame to having a packed stadium. After this one, Dan tries to whine about playing 10 games.
