National Media Preseason Rankings for the Buckeyes

Andy Katz (NCAA.com)- OSU #12
Matt Norlander (CBS Sports)- #18
Jon Rothstein (CBS Sports)- #21
Jeff Goodman (watchstadium)- #19
Athlon Sports- #14
Lindy's Sports- #17

Michigan's highest ranking in this group is #3. Their lowest #9.

Purdue: highest #2, lowest #11

Illinois: Highest #7, Lowest #20

Analytics

Erik Haslam (Hasalmetrics): OSU #7 (UM #4, Illinois #6, Purdue #8)

Bart Torvic (T Rank Projections): OSU #11 (Illinois #5, UM #7, Purdue #8)

I don't put a lot of stock in either, but I found it pretty interesting. The national media seems to either have Purdue and UM a couple of tiers above OSU and Illinois or they have Purdue, UM, and Illinois all a couple tiers above the Buckeyes.

Yet, the two analytic sites seem to put all 4 teams at generally the same level (a pretty high level at that). KenPom, another analytical site, has not released their 2021-22 projections yet but I imagine it will soon. We'll see if they have the Buckeyes more in line with the other two sites or more in line with the national media.

Again I don't think this means a lot, but thought it was interesting. I don't follow college football as closely as college football, but I imagine Clemson had a Top 5 projection by both national media and analytics, so take it with a grain of salt.