Ohio State drops from second to sixth in AP poll after loss to Michigan

Ohio State slipped from second to sixth in the Associated Press college football poll on Sunday after a 30-24 loss to Michigan.

No. 3 Washington, No. 4 Florida State, and No. 5 Oregon all moved up a spot in the poll, giving the Pac-12 two top-five teams for the first time since the final ranking of the 2016 season. Georgia remained No. 1 as the two-time defending national champions have been for 24 straight polls, dating back to the middle of the last season. The Bulldogs received 52 of 62 first-place votes.

Michigan returned to No. 2 following a week at No. 3 and received 10 first-place votes after the victory over the visiting Buckeyes.

Ohio State’s drop cleared the way for Washington to reach its best ranking since finishing the 2000 season at No. 3 and setting up a top-five matchup with Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game on Friday in Las Vegas.

The final Pac-12 championship game in the conference’s current form before 10 members leave for other Power Five conferences will be its first matching top-five teams.

The last time there were two Pac-12 teams in the top five of the AP poll was 2016, when Southern California finished No. 3 and Washington No. 4. The last time it happened during the season was Oct. 6, 2013, when Oregon was No. 2 and Stanford was fifth.

No. 7 Texas and No. 8 Alabama held their places Sunday. Missouri moved up one spot to ninth and Penn State to No. 10. The Nittany Lions (10-2) finished their regular season Friday with a 42-0 rout of Michigan State.

Ryan Day’s decisions in The Game may haunt him. Again.

Michigan made the most of aggressive calls by fill-in coach Sherrone Moore and took advantage of Day’s approach, which was conservative at times.

On the Buckeyes’ second drive, Day didn’t go for it on fourth-and-1 from his 46 and punted in a scoreless game.

“We didn’t want to give them any momentum,” he said softly.

Trailing 14-10 late in the first half of a game he absolutely had to win, Day allowed 30-plus seconds to tick off the clock and settled for a 52-yard field-goal attempt — which was missed — instead of attempting to convert a fourth-and-2 from the Michigan 34 to potentially get in a position for a go-ahead touchdown.

“I felt like that was the right thing to do,” he said when pressed to share his rationale.

Day knows, more than anyone, that every choice he makes will be second-guessed while in charge of one of college football’s perennial powers.

That’s especially true after the coach in his fifth full season was arguably outcoached by an offensive coordinator with four games of experience as an acting head coach in place of Jim Harbaugh, who was suspended by the Big Ten and his school for half of the regular season.

While Day took a cautious approach in some critical moments, Moore did not.

Moore surprised the Buckeyes by putting backup quarterback Alex Orji in the game early in the third quarter and having him run, resulting in a 20-yard gain.

“That was something we had ready to go as a changeup,” Moore said. “We always got different things, different wrinkles, to keep people off balance. It was something they really hadn’t seen all year, and it ended up working out well.”

The Wolverines (12-0, 9-0 Big Ten, No. 3 CFP) will move on to the Big Ten championship game next Saturday night against No. 20 Iowa for a chance to play their way into the College Football Playoff for a third straight year.

The Buckeyes (11-1, 8-1, No. 2 CFP) will have to wait until next Sunday to find out if they’ll be fortunate enough to earn a spot in the national semifinals, as they were last year after losing to Michigan.

“The worst part is we have to sit back now and see how everything shakes out,” said Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord, a former St. Joseph’s Prep star whose two interceptions were the only turnovers on a crisp and clear afternoon. “It’s out of our control. I know last year we got a second chance at life in the playoffs.

“The worst part is it’s out of our control.”

The same eight teams have been the top eight teams in the country for five straight weeks, with the only loss among those teams during that span being Ohio State’s to Michigan.

The last time there was no team turnover in the top eight for that long was 2008 in Weeks 11-15. That year Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama, USC, Penn State, Utah, and Texas Tech held the top eight spots in some order for five weeks.

Among the top eight teams there are only four losses, one each for Oregon, Ohio State, Texas, and Alabama. Of those four losses, three have come to other teams in the top eight: Oregon lost to Washington, Ohio State lost to Michigan, and Alabama lost to Texas.

Texas’ loss came to No. 12 Oklahoma. Extend it out to the top 12 to include No. 11 Mississippi and the only loss to a currently unranked team among that group is Oklahoma’s to Kansas.