Two upset losses helped set the stage for a national championship showdown between Notre Dame and Ohio State. The Fighting Irish and Buckeyes will clash on January 20th after both teams fought back from early season defeats.
Two upset losses stood out among the rest in college football this season. Notre Dame suffered one of them. Ohio State the other. In years past, those losses might have been enough to knock both teams out of the hunt for a national title. This year, with the debut of the 12-team playoff, those two teams will play for it. Ohio State defeated Texas 24-13 in a Cotton Bowl semifinal on Friday night to set up a Jan. 20 meeting against the Fighting Irish.
Ohio State hasn’t lost since it fell to Notre Dame, and the Buckeyes are looking to win their sixth AP national title, ninth overall, and first since the College Football Playoff debuted in 2014 with a four-team playoff. Notre Dame is going for its 12th championship, but its first since 1988. This Big Ten vs. independent matchup means this is the second straight year that the Southeastern Conference will be shut out of the final after winning the championship in six of the previous eight years. The losses this season helped set the tone for both teams as they embarked on the sort of comeback that might not have been possible in years past. “The time you’re tested the most is when you’re at your lowest point,” said Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman, who will become the first Black coach to capture the national title with a win. “We lose to Northern Illinois and you’ve got a decision: ‘Do I want to be selfless? Or am I going to put individual glory ahead of myself?’” Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, center, and members of the team celebrate after winning the Orange Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal game against Penn State, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)“You have to go through adversity along the way, and how you handle adversity is how you define life, and these guys are going through life lessons right now,” Day said. against Ohio State’s Will Howard, each of whom are in their first year at their schools after entering the transfer portal after last season. Though there was NIL money involved, both players said they moved to schools to try to win a title. “The truth is, I came here to win a national championship, and to go to the best team that would give me the best chance to do that,” said Riley, who moved to Notre Dame from Duke. “I had a list of things I was looking for, in terms of needing to go somewhere where there was a lot of talent around me and somewhere I could compete for a national championship,” Howard told ESPN last year, not long after he made the move from Kansas State. It felt right that the nation’s best defense turned an opponent’s first-and-goal from its 1 into a touchdown of its own. That’s how Ohio State wrapped up its win Friday night — a fitting exclamation point for a team that leads the country in both yards and points allowed. Notre Dame is good on ‘D,’ too. The Fighting Irish allow the ninth-fewest yards and also rank third in turnover differential even after losing that battle in the win over Penn State. Leonard has been figuring out ways to win in the playoffs using his arms and legs, but other than a fourth-quarter flurry against a big, fast Penn State defense, the fighting Irish offense has plodded through the quarters and semifinals. Also worth monitoring is the status of left tackle Anthonie Knapp, who left Thursday’s game early. Give credit where it’s due. While the first two rounds of playoff action featured a steady stream of boring blowouts, the semifinal games were fun and close.Still, when the worse seed wins every game in the final eight and final four, something is amiss. In the case of these playoffs, the answer seems obvious. The byes handed out to conference champions, all of whom lost in the quarterfinals, distorted the rankings and jumbled the bracket. Ohio State’s dismantling of top seed Oregon and Notre Dame’s win over No. 2 Georgia (without its quarterback) removed any doubt that some great team got cheated solely by the bracket. It might have also shown that, brackets aside, there are many good but no great teams now that NIL and the transfer portal are in full swing
COLLEGE FOOTBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP NOTRE DAME OHIO STATE PLAYOFF TRANSFER PORTAL NIL
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