Immediately following Ohio State’s 34-21 win over Wisconsin to secure the program’s third straight Big Ten championship, all eyes turned to the College Football Playoff committee.

Unlike years past, the committee was spared any heated debates about who would get in. Instead, the conversation and debate continued to center on who would sit atop the rankings, as it has for most of the year between Ohio State and LSU.

The answer was delivered this afternoon as the committee’s final rankings revealed the LSU Tigers jumped Ohio State for the top-ranked spot. Clemson and Oklahoma rounded out the 2019 final top four.

No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Clemson will head to Arizona where they will play in the Fiesta Bowl. No. 1 LSU and No. 4 Oklahoma will play in Atlanta in the Peach Bowl. Both semifinals will take place on Saturday, Dec. 28.

Following the revealing of the rankings, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day met with the media to discuss the rankings and his team’s next opponent.

Day was adamant following the Big Ten championship that he felt his team deserved to maintain its number one ranking. Asked about his thoughts on the final rankings, he said, “Do I feel like we should have been the one seed? Yeah. But LSU has had an unbelievable season … At the end of the day, you have to beat the best in order to win the national championship.”

While other coaches have used and will continue to use their ranking and perceived slight as public motivation, Day said he has already gotten past it and shifted his attention to what lies ahead.

“At this point, I’ve kind of moved on,” Day said. “I thought we made our case.”

As for his early thoughts on the matchup with Clemson, Day said, “The impression is that they’re the defending champs and they haven’t lost since … We’ve done eveyrthing we can up to this point and now its time to go play clemson. If we want to win the whole thing, we have to go play everybody.”

The break the Ohio State players will receive following what was a grueling three-week stretch figures to go a long way in rejuvenating the Buckeyes. Day said he believes the time off will be more critical in erasing his team’s mental fatigue than from a physical standpoint.

“Phsyically, we’re ok,” Day said. “I think emotiionally and mentally, we need a little break here. We need to get away … It was truly march madness, playoff football (over the last three weeks).”