The Buckeyes are staring at the toughest road left in college football.
According to the latest College Football Power Index simulations, Ohio State has the No. 1 most difficult remaining strength of schedule in the country entering Week 7. That’s a brutal label, but it fits what’s ahead for a team already sitting at 5-1 after a grind that included a one-point loss at Texas, a game in which the Buckeyes once led by 20.
Now comes the part that will tell the whole story. Ohio State goes to undefeated Indiana this week, then still has road trips to USC and Nebraska, plus home games against Oregon and Michigan. That kind of finish can burnish a College Football Playoff résumé in a hurry - or wreck it just as fast.
The SEC dominates the rest of the list, owning eight of the 10 most difficult remaining schedules. Missouri checks in at No. 2, followed by LSU at No. 3, with Texas A&M, Florida, Auburn, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Arkansas also stacked into the top 10.
Missouri, also 5-1, gets Ole Miss this week before a punishing stretch that runs through Texas at home, Georgia on the road, Kentucky at home, and then Oklahoma. It’s the sort of closing run that could push the Tigers into the playoff picture or expose where they stand against elite competition.
LSU, meanwhile, is 4-2 after a narrow overtime loss at Kentucky and still has a gauntlet to survive. The Tigers have Mississippi State, Auburn, Alabama and Texas left at home, plus a trip to Tennessee. It’s a schedule that leaves almost no margin for error.
USC lands at No. 5 on the remaining-schedule list thanks to a difficult Big Ten finish that includes a home date with Ohio State.
Florida and Auburn also face additional ranked tests that will help define where they stand in the postseason race, while Tennessee’s remaining home slate against Alabama, Kentucky and LSU keeps the Vols in the conversation - or knocks them out of it.
The bigger picture is hard to miss: the teams with the roughest roads ahead are mostly the ones in the power conferences, and the next few weeks should do plenty to separate the real contenders from the pretenders. In a playoff race where every late-season result gets magnified, these schedules are going to matter.
In Other News...
Missouri Brings A Dangerous Twist To This Huge Oxford Test
A big October test is waiting in Oxford, and Missouri is arriving with plenty of confidence after stacking wins over Florida and Texas A&M. The Tigers are ranked 13th nationally, and they have started to look like the sort of complete team that can punish any mistake, which makes this matchup a particularly important one for Ole Miss as it continues to chase momentum in a crowded SEC race.
What gives the game an extra layer is the familiar face factor, with former Rebels Austin Simmons and Cayden Lee now helping drive Missouris success. The Tigers also just showed how disruptive they can be defensively by slowing Floridas Jadan Baugh, who had previously been a problem for Ole Miss, so the Rebels will have to sort through both the emotional edge and the tactical challenge if they want to protect home field. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Is Winning Differently And That Should Excite Rebels Fans
Ole Miss left Nashville with more than another win, it left with one of the clearest signs yet that this seasons attack is built to stress opponents in every direction. Trinidad Chambliss and Jam Brown found the end zone, and the Rebels kept rolling with a style that spread the production around instead of leaning on just one or two familiar names. It was the kind of game that underscored how many different ways this team can score when the offense is clicking.
The defense and special moments from elsewhere on the field only added to the sense that this was a complete performance. Suntarine Perkins scored his first career touchdown and also reached 20 career sacks, a milestone that says plenty about his impact already. Ole Miss has now scored a touchdown with seven different players in a recent game and has been perfect in the red zone this season, which is the sort of balance that should have Rebels fans thinking this team may be winning in a more sustainable way than ever before. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Defense Just Revived A Question That Will Define November
A week after the Florida loss raised real concerns about where Ole Miss defense stood, Pete Goldings unit responded the way a playoff hopeful needs to in October. The Rebels rolled past Vanderbilt 52-17, and the most encouraging part for Ole Miss wasnt just the margin. It was the defense settling back in, giving up only 17 points and doing a much better job against the run, which had been a sore spot in the previous outing.
That kind of bounce-back matters now because the schedule is about to get a lot more demanding. Ole Miss is heading into ranked conference games with November looming, and the defenses ability to hold up against better offenses may end up shaping whether this team stays in the College Football Playoff conversation. For Golding, the Vanderbilt showing was a useful reset, but the real test is still ahead. [Read more 🡒]