2024-2025 College Football Playoff: National Championship Preview

January 20, 2025
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This really is a landmark moment in college football.

Tonight, a champion deriving from the first ever 12-team Playoff at the sport’s FBS level will be crowned. The decision to expand the postseason was one that had been called upon for decades and deliberated by the powers that be for not a whole lot less time than that.

Was it perfect? Well, no.

Change is coming in terms of the seeding process, and a little further down the line, likely to the way that conferences crown their own champion. These noted changes, probable in nature, are just the most obvious areas for improvement that were placed on display in year one of the expanded Playoff, but other tweaks will ultimately happen as well.

Next question: was it better than what occurred prior? Absolutely, yes.

Don’t let the noise from pundits and fans alike distract you from the fact that this expanded Playoff represents tangible growth for college football. There will always be those that felt left out, and the degree to which those feelings are validated will always be subjective. But at the end of the day, whether or not two teams or more than 12 had a legitimate shot of lifting the national championship trophy at the end of the season, this particular expansion meant real progress.

Progress for the game, but also, increased revenue for those participating. And this reality is why you’re not going to be hearing any major complaints from the conferences, blueblood programs, associated bowl games or television networks that got to enjoy a slice of the pie.

The structure may change, but the 2024-2025 college football season was truly one for the books.

Let’s take a quick look at the final game of the season – the one for all the marbles.

CFP National Championship

#8 Ohio State vs. #7 Notre Dame (Monday, 7:30 PM ET – ESPN)

I’m sorry if this heightens the anxiety of some Ohio State fans, but this game gives real 2003 Miami-Ohio State vibes. Notre Dame has reached the national title game as a relative underdog, accomplishing more with less. Case in point: the Fighting Irish are led by a quarterback that is seemingly doing more with his “never say die” attitude than he is with his arm. Almost no one will argue that Marcus Freeman, a former player at Ohio State under Jim Tressel (of 2003 national title fame), hasn’t elevated this team to its current position thanks to creative game planning and a commitment to what works for his personnel. But for as intelligent as Freeman and his staff may be, the reality is that Ohio State marches into this matchup as the bigger, stronger, more talented group that will view any result other than a victory as a colossal failure.

In order for Notre Dame to pull off the upset, staying on schedule offensively will be priority number one. Given Riley Leonard’s skillset, the Fighting Irish will be in trouble against Ohio State’s defense if they are forced into third and long situations. Though Notre Dame has managed to survive both Penn State and Georgia’s talented defenses already, it did take until the second half for the Fighting Irish to get the running game going against the Nittany Lions. Ohio State presents a similar challenge defensively and on offense has the personnel to break down what has been a tough Notre Dame unit. Where Notre Dame really broke through against the Bulldogs and Nittany Lions is playing opportunistic defense. If Will Howard & Co. take care of the football and Chip Kelly doesn’t get too conservative with the play-calling, Ohio State has too many weapons for Notre Dame to account for in this game. There’s little reason why Kelly would so something like that (this is the final game of the season, after all), which gives me a high level of confidence that Ohio State’s offense will pepper in a mix of the pass and run game which thus far has been too much for some of the best teams in the game to keep up with. A few downfield attempts early, if only to keep Notre Dame thinking about the possibility of being burned by Jeremiah Smith, could do wonders for Ohio State. The Fighting Irish have been excellent at preventing chunk plays by the opposition but Ohio State is a different animal compared with everything Notre Dame has seen up to this point.

We saw this past weekend in the NFL playoff games, seemingly more talented teams being done in by costly turnovers. If Ohio State avoids giving Notre Dame extra possessions, I think that the Buckeyes will eventually wear down the Fighting Irish offensively and be too difficult to move the chains against defensively. If the Buckeyes do turn the ball over, they’re opening the door for a disciplined Notre Dame squad to execute its game plan, which it probably won’t pivot from for the entirety of this game.

Ohio State has clearly kicked it into a new gear since the Playoff began and deserves to win the national title. I see them doing so on Monday night, exorcising any remaining doubt from those outside the “lunatic fringe” about Ryan Day’s ability to deliver on expectations.

My Pick: 31-14 Ohio State

Bowl Mania Confidence: 17 points

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