College Football Playoff title game: SEC officiating crew comically mess up call on Notre Dame TD drive vs. Ohio State

Controversy came quickly during the College Football Playoff national championship game on Monday night between Notre Dame and Ohio State.

Facing 2nd & 10, Fighting Irish quarterback Riley Leonard completed a 10-yard pass to Kris Mitchell for a first down. However, Mitchell did not appear to reach the first down marker and was visibly short of the line to gain according to the yellow first down marker on the screen.

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The officiating crew, which comes from the SEC, awarded Notre Dame the first down and the drive continued without reviewing the spot.

Why was this called a first down a few plays ago? pic.twitter.com/YrsHqeVzRp

— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) January 21, 2025

That was the sixth play of the game and would have forced 3rd down on what turned out to be an 18-play touchdown drive that took up over half of the opening quarter. The drive was capped by a one-yard touchdown rush by Leonard, who ran the ball nine times during the drive.

Leonard carried the ball on five of the last six plays of the drive before taking the early lead.

Ohio State wasted no time to get those seven points back. The Buckeyes marched down the field in half the amount of plays (9) and took half the amount of time before Will Howard hooked up with a wide-open Jeremiah Smith for the eight-yard touchdown score.

Marcus Freeman calls out Vegas ahead of national title: ‘We’re not underdogs, but we’re some dogs’

Just after Ohio State won its College Football Playoff semifinal to set up a national championship showdown with Notre Dame, the Buckeyes opened as 9.5-point favorites. Marcus Freeman used that number as motivation for his team and called out Vegas before kickoff.

Freeman revealed the Fighting Irish’s mindset against the Buckeyes in Monday’s title game as picks continued to come in for Ohio State to bring home the title. He detailed the underdog mentality his team has entering Mercedes-Benz Stadium and said the plan was to be aggressive from the start.

In the process, Freeman detailed his rallying cry. The Irish might be underdogs, but that’s not going to stop them from going to work.

“We’re gonna start when the foot hits the ball,” Freeman told ESPN’s Molly McGrath. “I just told them in the locker room, I said, ‘Vegas got half of it right. We’re not underdogs, but we’re some dogs. Real dogs hunt, so it’s time to hunt.'”

On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this report.