Ringside Report Takes a Closer Look at NCAA Football

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By Ron Signore

The final stage of this NCAA Football season has been set. We see a controversy every year on the College Football Playoff Picture. Constant debate about how many teams should be in or who the top 4 teams are in every sense of the word becomes a fun discussion on every major sports outlet.

This year was no different. The Ohio State Buckeye’s finished the year 6-0 before their #3 ranking was announced for the playoff. The drama came prior to that when Ohio State had only played 5 regular season games as opposed to the required 6 to get into the Big 10 Championship game. The Big 10 waived that requirement for the undefeated Buckeyes because the games they didn’t play were due to COVID issues at other programs. The hypothesis is simple. These bowl games mean money.

Ohio State, who was believed to be one of the top programs in the country in the pre-season, never really lost that high overall ranking position despite when games started and how many were played. The Big 10 arguably waived that requirement because representation from the conference in a high-profile bowl game and potential championship would widen the pockets of all involved. Allowing Ohio State to compete for the B1G Championship against Northwestern University was not only the right move from a winning percentage perspective, but ultimately a challenge to rival top programs because the winner of that game would certainly have a claim to hang with anyone in the country.

There were arguments that several other teams should have been considered for the top 4 programs in the country to compete for the playoff. An undefeated University of Cincinnati or a one loss Texas A&M were prime candidates to fill the 4 seed. However, the final four ended up being a number 1 ranked Alabama, a number 2 ranked one-loss Clemson (to Notre Dame), a number 3 ranked Ohio State and finally a one loss Notre Dame (Clemson in the ACC Championship) to round out the top 4.

The match ups that were set for New Year’s Day were #1 Alabama vs #4 Notre Dame and finally #2 Clemson vs #3 Ohio State. The two historic programs in Alabama and Notre Dame drew a lot of interest as two of the winningest programs in college football history, but from an analytical perspective, the only people who thought the Fighting Irish from Notre Dame who had a chance were the fans and players. While bookmakers had Alabama favored by nearly 20 points, they ended up beating the Irish by 17 points, and it was not even as close as the 17 points would indicate on the surface. The Crimson Tide controlled the game and were never seriously challenged from the get-go.

But Clemson and Ohio State have a very recent history. This game would have many ponderings how the outcome would be. The bookmakers favored Clemson by a touchdown. Clemson was hot off a victory where the team looked the most complete it had all season after beating Notre Dame in the ACC championship and Ohio State had looked to struggle with a slow start against a top defense in Northwestern in the Big 10 Championship. Heisman candidate OSU QB Justin Fields looked downright awful in the Big 10 Championship. Those games in mind and last years semi final playoff game between Clemson and Ohio State where Ohio State blew a multiple score first half lead all for Clemson to come out victorious and play for the national championship against eventual champion, LSU (SEC).

It was apparent that Ohio State only remembered that defeat from last year. The Buckeyes ran out to a controlling lead early and never looked back. The Buckeyes would go on to win convincingly 49-28 en route to a National Championship showdown with the University of Alabama Crimson Tide on January 11th.

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