Florida lost at home to Georgia Southern and Tennessee barely topped South Alabama in a home game, so I'd certainly give Ohio a chance.

I'm not happy with it. I'd realistically like to be closer to the Top 40.

 

Disappointing? Yes. But let's take a look at some other teams around us in these useless rankings:

#75 Utah -- That Utah school that beat Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl and finished #2 in the country? Ute betcha.

#79 TCU -- The program that also busted the BCS by playing in all four BCS Bowl Games and finishing #6 in 2009 and #2 in 2010? Great Horny Toads!

#81 Florida -- National champs in 2006 and 2008? Sugar Bowl and a Top Ten rating in 2012? My, my, Meyer.

#88 WVU -- The school that put up 70 points on Clemson in the 2011 Orange Bowl? Had Top 25 finishes consecutively from 2005-2011 (and a Top 5 appearance during the 2012 season)? Great googly moogly. WWCLT? (What Would Chuck Landon Think)

After tastes of recent sustained success, ask these fans if they are happy with this year's rankings and they're likely even more disappointed than we are.

 

All four of those teams you mentioned had completely dreadful seasons and there are reasons for their demise. That doesn't make Ohio any better than them just because Ohio is ranked higher by USA Today. 

Utah - They haven't been right since they moved to the PAC 12. The win over Stanford at home was a huge program boost and they'll probably bounce back once the money from the league starts flowing in. Lets not forget that the PAC 12 was arguably the second best conference in the country before the bowl season started. Would Ohio beat them this year? It would be a good game. They beat three bowl teams (Stanford, Utah State, and BYU) and played another, Arizona State, close and lost by one. They finished 5-7, one win from bowl eligibility.  

TCU - Like Utah, struggling a little bit to find their footing in a bigger conference and for the second straight season, had complete turmoil at the QB position when Casey Paschall went down with a season ending injury. Before this season, they had eight straight winning seasons, six of them being double digit win seasons. Even with the inexperience at QB, they were virtually competitive in every game they played. They only lost two games by more than 10 points (Texas and Oklahoma State). Would Ohio beat them? I want to say yes because of their QB situation, but I think it would be closer than you might think. TCU is still the better program and has better players.

Florida - Florida was basically Georgia without Aaron Murray this year. They were completely decimated by injuries. Once again, an example of a team that really needed a QB. Even when Jeff Driskell played, he was downright awful at times, but they probably would have made it to bowl eligibility with a somewhat competent QB under center. They started 4-1, then lost seven straight games, right after he got hurt. Correllation? I think so. This was their first losing season since 1979. Would Ohio beat them? No. Don't give me the Georgia Southern line. Florida had already given up on the season and played a team that ran the triple option. That was Georgia Southern's Super Bowl. It would be closer than the Toledo win (24-6), but we would not beat them. 

WVU - WVU hasn't been anything since their winning streak ended in 2012 and Holgerson isn't the coach to get them out of it. They were ranked 100th in points allowed. Their offense was probably just as inconsistent as Ohio's. One week they wouldn't score at all and another they would score 30+ on someone. This was their first season missing a bowl game since 2001. I'm beginning to think the travel in the Big 12 is taking its toll on this program. Would Ohio beat them? Depends on which Ohio and West Virginia offenses showed up. If Ohio's offense played to it's full potential then yeah, they could beat them. Ohio's defense is better than WVU's for sure, but that's not saying much.

Of course these fans aren't happy with where they are. But I doubt they're looking at Ohio as a team that's better than them.

 

I'd be very happy with a #77, actually. As you point out, the recruiting classes were ranked in the 90's (and 2010 was more like 120) so that's 20 places above that, about what you would realistically hope for. The problem is that I don't think Ohio really belongs that high.



 

Agree 100% on the MAC wins -- 4-4 won't cut it. Disagree on the scheduling better teams. Three out of four non-conf. opponents (not counting ECU) were bowl teams and Ohio went 2-1 against them. The problem is conference play, especially in November.

 

Of course it depends on how you define quality. But in the context of this case, we're talking about how Ohio can improve in these rankings.

giacomo said to schedule higher quality opponents.

My counterpoint is that scheduling opponents that are actually ranked lower than Ohio will not improve in the rankings.

If we were talking about attendance, marketing, alumni events, then yes, we would need to consider the perceived quality of these other opponents; but for rankings, no.