College football polls have a tendency to anoint one team as the irrefutable top dog of the sport. The AP poll, for example, has awarded Alabama 56 of the 61 first-place votes here in Week 7. With half of the regular season already in the books, Alabama is attempting to become just the third team in the modern era to go wire to wire as the AP's No. 1 team.
To give a bit of perspective on how different college basketball voting can be, at the halfway point last season, four teams had already ascended to the top spot in the first nine weeks, and seven separate programs had garnered No. 1 votes. Which begs the question: Is Alabama definitively the cream of the crop, or are voters failing to give other programs serious consideration for the top perch?
Alabama’s claim to No. 1 is rooted in its three top-25 victories, impressive scoring margin (+29 ppg), and merciless pass rush. When presented with these facts, it's easy to keep them where they started the season, atop college football. The top-25 wins, however, can be a bit misleading. Their opener against USC, for example, was a statement win over a highly ranked opponent at the time. Since then, the Trojans have fallen out of the top 25 altogether, placing their head coach, Clay Helton, directly on the hot seat.
Their second-ranked win came on the road against Ole Miss, a five-point victory that required three non-offensive touchdowns. Finally, their most recent triumph came against Arkansas, a program led by a first-year starter that could quickly be outside of the top 25 after a three-week stretch that has it facing three ranked opponents.
The Tide's scoring margin has been inflated by blowout victories over Western Kentucky, Kent State, and Kentucky. According to Jeff Sagarin's rating system, those three programs come in at 70th, 126th, and 75th, respectively. Essentially, based upon their opponents and reliance on defensive and special teams touchdowns (9), it's fair to say they may not be an ironclad No. 1 team.
Which naturally leads to the question: If not Alabama, who?
A familiar foe of Nick Saban comes to mind.
Ohio State travels to Camp Randall this weekend for a top-10 showdown with Wisconsin as a 10-point favorite. Vegas' confidence in the Buckeyes is backed by their stellar play in 2016. Urban Meyer's team is 4-1 against the spread, including a waxing of Oklahoma in Norman back in Week 3.
They have a scoring margin nearly two touchdowns larger than Alabama’s (42.9 ppg) and their young defense has allowed fewer than 11 points per game on average. They can match the Crimson Tide's impressive road win over a ranked opponent, and have been even more dominant against lesser opponents than Alabama has been. They also possess a veteran quarterback who has five career wins over ranked opponents.
Drilling down further, we find that Ohio State possesses a more efficient offense, a more impressive running game, and a more disruptive defense, according to Football Outsiders' rating system. Even the Buckeyes' defensive "Havoc Rating" surpasses that of Alabama's. The Tide and the Buckeyes are close in nearly every meaningful metric, which makes this weekend a particularly important one for both programs.
If the Buckeyes were to dispose of the Badgers by double digits on Saturday night and the Vols were to give the Tide a real fight for the second straight season, voters would be forced to give Ohio State serious consideration for the top slot.