Heather Dinich calls Ohio State team to beat nationally over Texas

ESPN’s Heather Dinich opted for Ohio State over Texas when it came to the team to beat in the country this year. The 2025 college football season is right around the corner and those are two of the biggest national championship contenders.

Texas, led by Arch Manning now at quarterback, has a lot of hype and expectations. But let’s not forget about the defending national champs. Ironically, the two square off to open the season in what could be a CFP National Championship Game preview.

Dinich was asked if it was fact or fiction that Texas was the team to beat nationwide on Get Up Wednesday. Spoiler, she didn’t say fact!

“Fiction, Ohio State might have a word about that, and we’ll find out in the season opener who is the team to beat and until proven otherwise, nationally speaking, it’s still the Buckeyes,” Dinich said. “But I will say that Texas is the team to beat right now in the SEC. 

“I think they’ve got a lot of talent, even though they have questions up front on the offensive line and at wide receiver. Defensively, I think they should be strong in the SEC. Nationally, time will tell.”

Now, should Texas and Manning beat Ohio State in Columbus to open the year, the hype will be deafening. Even though that’s hard to imagine.

“It’s hard to imagine, as I sit here with all of these lights everywhere at SEC Media Days, that the spotlight could get brighter, but I think the hype would somehow increase,” Dinich said. “But the reality is, it’s a first step in a long road to a national title, and that’s the expectations at Texas. 

“But also from a College Football Playoff perspective, that would be a huge head-to-head win that would continue to resonate with the selection committee meeting room all the way through selection day. Remember, the seeding has changed. The top four teams are going to get the top four seeds, regardless of if they’re conference champions or not, and head-to-head wins are one of those tiebreakers that they’ll use.”

The Longhorns should be favored in pretty much every game they play this regular season, with the exceptions of the opener at Ohio State and likely the road game at Georgia on November 15. But as Dinich pointed out, there will be a clear cut No. 1 team in the country, albeit after Week 1, if Texas beats Ohio State on August 30th.