COLUMBUS – Ohio State dropped two spots in The Plain Dealer fake BCS standings this week, with the narrow overtime escape over Purdue costing the Buckeyes in the computer ratings and the polls.

A week ago, Ohio State would have been No. 7 in the BCS standings, if the Buckeyes were eligible. This week, they would be No. 9 according to Plain Dealer math, behind No. 8 Oklahoma but well ahead of USC, the team the Buckeyes would push to No. 10.

Here's how we figured it.

Despite the Buckeyes' ban from the BCS standings, because they are under NCAA sanctions, the six computer ratings used by the BCS still include Ohio State. The BCS just removes Ohio State when using the ratings.

Ohio State dropped in all six ratings compared to last week.

Colley Matrix 6, down from 5

Anderson & Hester 7, down from 6

Sagarin 9, down from 5

Wolfe 9, down from 6

Massey 9, down from 8

Billingsley 12, down from 11

The BCS takes out the top and bottom computer rating for each team. It then assigns 25 points to the No. 1 team in each computer down to one point for No. 25. Ohio State would total 70 points, down from 79 a week ago.

So the computer rating for that one-third of the BCS would be .700 for Ohio State.

Ohio State also lost points in the AP poll. A week ago, the Buckeyes got 1,071 of a possible 1,500 points. This week, it was 1,028 of 1,500. So Ohio State's poll number is .685, down from .714 last week.

Since the Buckeyes are ineligible for both the Harris poll and coaches poll, we use the AP poll number twice, to account for the two-thirds of the BCS standings that come from polls.

Add .685 plus .685 plus .700 and divide by three, and Ohio State's overall BCS number is .6900. Oklahoma is No. 8 at .7126 while USC is No. 10 at .5767.

Ohio State's number is down from .7393 last week.

And that moves Ohio State from No. 7 to No. 9, still behind Alabama, Florida, Kansas State, Oregon, Notre Dame and LSU, and now falling behind Oregon State and Oklahoma as well.

This does not account for the points other teams would lose if the Buckeyes actually were in the polls and computer ratings. But the Buckeyes look pretty solid as fake No. 9