If you’ve followed along with us for any period of time, there’s no doubt you know that there are a few things we like to keep tabs on when it comes to the Ohio State football team. One of those is the ESPN Football Power Index which is used as a predictive metric of a team’s future success.
To be fully transparent, the formula used isn’t well-known since it’s held pretty close to the vest by ESPN, but it’s a bit of a combination of returning talent, recruiting reinforcements, and past history, all designed to put a quantitative measure on a team’s roster and potential success.
As luck would have it, ESPN just released its very early FPI rankings for 2023 and Ohio State got a pretty unexpected bump and sits awfully high on the list of teams for 2023, probably much higher than you might expect.
Here on this free Buckeye homer site, we do like to keep tabs on the entire Big Ten, so we thought it a good exercise to rank the Big Ten teams to see how they stack up according to the FPI. Where is Ohio State in relation to Michigan, Wisconsin, and seemingly everyone’s dark horse contender, Penn State?
Here’s the ESPN FPI ranking of all fourteen teams in the conference from worst to first.
14
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
ESPN FPI Metrics
Total Score | -3.2 (No. 78 nationally)
Conference Championship Chances | 0.0%
Playoff Chances | 0.0%
National Title Chances | 0.0%
13
Indiana Hoosiers
ESPN FPI Metrics
Total Score | -2.9 (No. 75 nationally)
Conference Championship Chances | 0.0%
Playoff Chances | 0.0%
National Title Chances | 0.0%
12
Northwestern Wildcats
ESPN FPI Metrics
Total Score | -1.1 (No. 67 nationally)
Conference Championship Chances | 0.0%
Playoff Chances | 0.0%
National Title Chances | 0.0%
11
Nebraska Cornhuskers
ESPN FPI Metrics
Total Score | 3.1 (No. 52 nationally)
Conference Championship Chances | 0.1%
Playoff Chances | 0.0%
National Title Chances | 0.0%
10
Purdue Boilermakers
ESPN FPI Metrics
Total Score | 4.4 (No. 50 nationally)
Conference Championship Chances | 0.3%
Playoff Chances | 0.0%
National Title Chances | 0.0%
9
Illinois Fighting Illini
ESPN FPI Metrics
Total Score | 5.5 (No. 45 nationally)
Conference Championship Chances | 0.7%
Playoff Chances | 0.0%
National Title Chances | 0.0%
8
Maryland Terrapins
ESPN FPI Metrics
Total Score | 5.6 (No. 44 nationally)
Conference Championship Chances | 0.0%
Playoff Chances | 0.0%
National Title Chances | 0.0%
7
Iowa Hawkeyes
ESPN FPI Metrics
Total Score | 7.3 (No. 37 nationally)
Conference Championship Chances | 1.6%
Playoff Chances | 0.0%
National Title Chances | 0.0%
6
Minnesota Golden Gophers
ESPN FPI Metrics
Total Score | 7.7 (No. 33 nationally)
Conference Championship Chances | 0.9%
Playoff Chances | 0.0%
National Title Chances | 0.0%
5
Michigan State Spartans
ESPN FPI Metrics
Total Score | 8.7 (No. 31 nationally)
Conference Championship Chances | 0.2%
Playoff Chances | 0.1%
National Title Chances | 0.0%
4
Wisconsin Badgers
ESPN FPI Metrics
Total Score | 12.3 (No. 20 nationally)
Conference Championship Chances | 5.9%
Playoff Chances | 1.0%
National Title Chances | 0.1%
3
Penn State Nittany Lions
ESPN FPI Metrics
Total Score | 17.5 (No. 10 nationally)
Conference Championship Chances | 4.6%
Playoff Chances | 10.7%
National Title Chances | 1.0%
2
Michigan Wolverines
ESPN FPI Metrics
Total Score | 21.4 (No. 6 nationally)
Conference Championship Chances | 14.3%
Playoff Chances | 25.9%
National Title Chances | 3.9%
1
Ohio State Buckeyes
ESPN FPI Metrics
Total Score | 31.5 (No. 1 nationally)
Conference Championship Chances | 71.2%
Playoff Chances | 82.2%
National Title Chances | 36.7%
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