Buckeyes punch ticket to College Football Playoff, set for date with Georgia
COLUMBUS — Ohio State appeared out of the College Football Playoff after a loss last week to Michigan.
College football chaos had other plans.
Ohio State officially punched its ticket to the College Football Playoff on Sunday, an announcement that was made by ESPN during the CFP selection show. The Buckeyes will take on Georgia on Saturday, Dec. 31 in a juicy Peach Bowl matchup of No. 1 vs. No. 4 in Atlanta.
Of course, this isn’t where Ohio State planned to be. The Buckeyes could have been safely in the field had they beaten Michigan and won the Big Ten title game Saturday night. If that happened, they’d likely be heading to the Fiesta Bowl as one of the top two seeds.
But all that matters is that they’re in the four-team field with a chance to play for a national title.
“Our guys were really looking for an opportunity to finish this thing out the right way,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said Saturday during an appearance on College Gameday. “I think that opportunity is now in front of us.”
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The opportunity is now officially there for the Buckeyes, who draw the SEC champion Bulldogs. Georgia beat LSU in Atlanta on Saturday afternoon to stay a perfect 13-0 on the season.
The matchup against Georgia nearly didn’t happen. If USC would have beat Utah on Friday night in Las Vegas, the CFP committee would have kept Ohio State out of the four-team field, likely sending them to an Orange Bowl consolation prize
Instead, the Utes gave Ohio State a boost, sending them to the CFP for the sixth time, third most among all programs since the playoff expanded to four teams in 2014, the last time Ohio State was the No. 4 seed. In that year, the Buckeyes played the SEC champion down south in the semifinal — and won. Then they went and won the national title from the fourth spot.
Ohio State knows it has a rare second chance.
“Moving forward, we’re going to play loose,” Day said. “We’re going to be aggressive. And we’re going to go at people. There can’t be anyone in our program that presses at all or feels pressure. We’re just going to roll, and I think we can be a dangerous team here in the Playoff.”
Day and the Buckeyes now get a chance to prove that. They’re in the four-team field.
