Where does Lindy’s Sports have Ohio State in Big Ten, national races?

We want to wish everybody a happy and safe Memorial Day!

It is imperative that we remember and recognize all of the fallen heroes who fought and gave their lives to protect our way of life. Thank you to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice and to all who dedicated their lives to serving for our country.

It is a Memorial Day rite of passage to hit the local bookstore or newsstand to find the first college football magazines. The winner today was Lindy’s Sports, which was spotted initially at the Barnes & Noble bookstore at Lenox Town Center near the Ohio State campus. (I also found it this morning at a Kroger store on the east side.)

Obviously, we are headed into a new paradigm in college football. This will be the first season of an 18-team Big Ten with Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington joining the league. And it will be the first season with a 12-team College Football Playoff to determine the national champion.

We will start our look at Lindy’s with the magazine’s top 25 rankings. Georgia is ranked No. 1 with Ohio State picked No. 2. The rest of the top 10 is Texas third, followed by Oregon, Ole Miss, Michigan, Alabama, Notre Dame, Missouri and Florida State. Besides Oregon and Michigan, Penn State at No. 11 is the only other Ohio State opponent listed in the Lindy’s preseason top 25.

Now, you can’t confuse preseason rankings with seeds for the CFB Playoff. There will be five automatic qualifiers for the 12-team field with the five highest ranked conference champions gaining bids. The top four ranked conference champions will get the first four seeds and have byes into the quarterfinals.

Plotting the playoff using the Lindy’s rankings, you would have:

* First Round Byes – No. 1 Georgia (SEC champion), No. 2 Ohio State (Big Ten champion), No. 3 Florida State (ACC champion) and No. 4 Oklahoma State (Big 12 champion).

* First Round Games (Dec. 20-21 on ESPN and TNT) – No. 12 Liberty (Conference USA champion) at No. 5 Texas, No. 11 Missouri at No. 6 Oregon, No. 10 Notre Dame at No. 7 Ole Miss, No. 9 Alabama at No. 8 Michigan.

* Quarterfinals (Dec. 31-Jan. 1 on ESPN and TNT) – The Fiesta, Peach, Rose and Sugar bowls would host the quarterfinals. (Ohio State would be projected to plat the Notre Dame-Ole Miss winner at the Rose Bowl.)

* Semifinals (Jan. 9-10 on ESPN) – The semifinals will be played at the Orange and Cotton bowls. (These are projected as Georgia-Texas in the Cotton Bowl and Ohio State-Oregon in the Orange.)

* National Championship Game (Jan. 20 on ESPN) – The title game will be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. (And, according to Lindy’s that would be Georgia vs. Ohio State … with Georgia winning 27-17.)

Georgia QB Carson Beck is No. 1 in the Heisman Watch, followed by Texas QB Quinn Ewers, Oregon QB Dillon Gabriel, Miami (Fla.) QB Cam Ward and Alabama QB Jalen Milroe. Ohio State QB Will Howard comes in at No. 9 on the list.