AP Top 25 Released: Have we learned our lesson about Ohio State?

With the dust settled on all 41 bowl games (well, 40, thanks to the Servpro Bowl), the AP Poll has released its Top 25 rankings for college football. And here’s how we stack up:

AP Poll Top 25

1. Clemson Tigers (61 FPV)
2. Alabama Crimson Tide
3. Ohio State Buckeyes
4. Oklahoma Sooners
5. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
6. LSU Tigers
7. Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs (TIE)
8. ——
9. Texas Longhorns
10. Washington State Cougars
11. UCF Knights
12. Kentucky Wildcats
13. Washington Huskies
14. Michigan Wolverines
15. Syracuse Orange
16. Texas A&M Aggies
17. Penn State Nittany Lions
18. Fresno State Bulldogs
19. Army Black Knights
20. West Virginia Mountaineers
21. Northwestern Wildcats
22. Utah State Aggies
23. Boise State Broncos
24. Cincinnati Bearcats
25. Iowa Hawkeyes

B1G Talking Points:

• Ohio State finishes exactly where they should have been—the best team not to make the College Football Playoff. Begin the debates about whether the Buckeyes would have beaten Oklahoma or Notre Dame.
• I’d put Michigan behind Syracuse.
• It’s logical to me to have a blue-blood like Penn State as the last still-ranked team in the “blue blood”/”good team” section, which this year is 16 teams and UCF! But God...they lost to Kentucky. KENTUCKY.
• I personally don’t think teams that lost to the Minnesota Golden Gophers should even sniff the year-end Top 25. Congrats to Fresno State on being the first team to earn that distinct in a couple decades, though.
• Go to the West Coast, beat #17/#20 Utah by two scores, get ranked...basically right where you were in the CFP, and behind a Big XII team that lost its coach and its bowl. Oh, and behind two mid-majors. Yep, all is right in the Northwestern world. Can’t wait to prove ‘em right with a loss to Stanford and/or UNLV next year.
• Seriously, though, Army was one of the best emergence stories in college football this year. Congrats to the Black Knights and Jeff Monken.
• Oddly, the other might have been Iowa State. But yet, like Twinkies after a nuclear holocaust, there’s Iowa.