ESPN's Bill Connelly recently updated its college football SP+ Rankings and you are going to like where Ohio State is ranked. But first, a quick primer on what goes into making the sausage for this well-known model:
Returning production. The returning production numbers are based on rosters I have updated as much as humanly possible to account for transfers and attrition. The combination of last year's SP+ ratings and adjustments based on returning production makes up about two-thirds of the projections formula.
Recent recruiting. This piece informs us of the caliber of a team's potential replacements (and/or new stars) in the lineup.