Utes rolled to 47-24 win in Pac-12 Championship Game
“Coach Day, you’re welcome”.
Those were Kyle Whittingham’s words to Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day, who might like to meet Utah Utes head coach and buy him a beer or shake his hand or owe him one for the rest of eternity. The path for the Buckeyes to get into the College Football Playoff was a loss by the USC Trojans in the Pac-12 Championship Game and that’s precisely what happened on Friday night in Las Vegas.
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We’ll see the official announcement on Sunday, but it looks like the Buckeyes will be in the College Football Playoff for the fifth time.
College Football Playoff Rankings
With the Buckeyes fifth in last Tuesday’s update, the scenario was pretty clear. A loss by the Trojans would drop them below Ohio State and the Scarlet & Gray would backdoor their way into a CFP semifinal game. Making the conference championship game has its pitfalls, as USC found out.
Many feel like the CFP Committee will avoid a rematch between Ohio State and Michigan, regardless of TCU’s outcome, which would send the Buckeyes into the Georgia Dome to take on the Georgia Bulldogs in the Peach Bowl in the 1 vs. 4 matchup. The Wolverines would play TCU in the Fiesta Bowl in that scenario.
Ohio State CFP History
Ohio State won the first College Football Playoff National Championship back in 2014 against the Oregon Ducks after beating the Alabama Crimson Tide in the semifinals. They lost in the semifinals to Clemson in the 2016 playoff and again in the 2020 playoff. They were blown out by Alabama in the 2021 Championship Game.
College Football Playoff Odds
Heading into Conference Championship Weekend, the Buckeyes had better odds than both TCU and USC to win the National Championship, despite not even being in the final four at that time.
As of November 30, the odds looked like this:
- Georgia -150
- Michigan +300
- Ohio State +800
- USC +1200
- TCU +1200
- Alabama +6000
DraftKings Sportsbook took the odds down for Saturday’s games, but the Buckeyes’ price will certainly be lower than 8/1, even with Georgia on the horizon. Georgia’s odds will lower as well, given that they’d be a smaller favorite against Ohio State than they would have against either TCU or USC. We’ll update when new odds get posted.
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