Ohio State swapped spots in Tuesday’s College Football Playoff rankings, with the Buckeyes now at No. 1 with No. 13 Michigan awaiting and the Tigers hosting Texas A&M at Death Valley on Saturday. Both teams are guaranteed Playoff spots if they win both their final regular-season games and conference championships, but which team will be No. 1 and which will be No. 2 will be a matter of debate based on their respective performances.

The No. 1 seed this season does matter, because Clemson is currently ranked No. 3. The No. 4 seed will be more favorable than playing Clemson.

After the release of the CFP rankings on ESPN, college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit gave his insight as to why the Buckeyes leapfrogged the Tigers despite struggling to eventually beat Penn State this past weekend, alluding partially to the strength of the Nittany Lions compared to the weakness of Arkansas, LSU’s most recent opponent.

“I think it has to do with the respect the committee has for Penn State is why this week,” Herbstreit said. “They look at Penn State as being a very, very good football team and the fact they fought Ohio State. The committee looked at Ohio State and said, ‘Hey, that’s a pretty good football team that they beat, while LSU has played Ole Miss and Arkansas last week.’

“I think the biggest thing is that defense from LSU opens the door a little bit to look at Ohio State as a more complete team from September to last week offensively and defensively. I think that’s what the committee must have seen.”