Ohio State’s drop to No. 6 in AP Poll ‘makes no sense’ to Kirk Herbstreit

The Ohio State Buckeyes looked every bit the No. 1 team in the nation for three quarters against the Texas Longhorns on Saturday.

In the fourth quarter, they most certainly did not, allowing the Longhorns to rattle off three touchdowns and pull off an epic comeback in Austin.

On Monday, Texas moved into the No. 1 spot previously occupied by OSU, which dropped down to No. 6 overall.

That didn’t sit well with ESPN college football analyst and former Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit.

“I don’t agree with it. … Ohio State was No. 1 coming into the game; they played really well for three quarters and then the game, to Texas’ credit, Texas beat Ohio State,” Herbstreit told Joey Galloway on Nonstop. “People can say all they want about how Ohio State got conservative [or] they played not to lose, whatever the case may be. They were dominating a football game 23-3 heading into the fourth quarter, and Texas ends up coming back to win the game.

“Yeah, you should be penalized for losing a game. But it’s kind of silly to drop all the way down to six after playing the way they did, coming in at No. 1. … I just don’t like the natural reaction, ‘Well, they lost. Down they go.’ I think that’s silly. If they dropped them to 3, I think that would make sense, maybe, 2 or 3. That’s just like 1970s way of polling. It makes no sense to me at all. But I think it’ll work itself out.”

Herbstreit might be right that the Buckeyes didn’t deserve a steep drop in the polls, but their loss didn’t happen in a vacuum either. They dropped below Georgia, Notre Dame, Indiana, and Miami, all of whom moved to 2-0.

Ultimately, as Herbstreit notes towards the end, this is much ado about nothing. It’s Week 3. If Ohio State truly deserves to reclaim a spot at or near the top, they’ll do so over the course of the next few weeks. He and Texas coach Steve Sarkisian don’t have to work so hard to make them feel better.

Whether they’re ranked No. 2 or No. 6 in mid-September is essentially meaningless. How Ryan Day’s team responds to the loss, especially with games against Iowa, Indiana, and USC looming, is far more important.