:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/1761279/154445454.0.jpg)
The Ohio State Buckeyes didn't lose on Saturday, but voters for the AP Top 25 Poll still dropped the team two spots to No. 9 this week after an overtime victory over the Purdue Boilermakers on Saturday. After narrowly avoiding an upset to the Indiana Hoosiers last week, the Buckeyes once again looked quite vulnerable on Saturday in Columbus.
A blowout win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Oct. 6 seemed to firmly put Ohio State in the national discussion of elite teams in spite of the Buckeyes' bowl ineligibility this year, but the past two weeks have definitely diminished whatever momentum the program had.
The Buckeyes are still unbeaten with just four weeks remaining in the regular season, but their ineligibility for the Big Ten Championship Game and any subsequent bowl games puts quite a damper on the prospects of the conference's best team.
The two teams that passed Ohio State in the rankings are the seventh-ranked Oregon State Beavers and the eighth-ranked Oklahoma Sooners, who have a huge match-up against the No. 5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish this week.