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.
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USCs Next Road Test Could Say A Lot About Its Playoff Push
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The Badgers provide a different kind of test than USC has seen on the road so far, and the trip will help show how real the Trojans progress is away from home. By the time they arrive in Madison, the questions around USC will not just be about record or ranking, but whether the defense and the overall balance are good enough to survive a game that could loom large in the conference race. [Read more 🡒]