Ohio State Football: The last year of CFP heartbreak

The Ohio State football team is going to be sitting at home this year while four other teams battle it out for a national championship. It’s the second time in the last three years that the Buckeyes will miss out on the College Football Playoff after losing to TTUN.

This should be the last time that the Buckeyes feel this CFP heartbreak though. With the Playoff expanding to 12 teams next year, Ohio State should be in the CFP every single year. They could lose two games and still get in as a wild-card team. That should be the easiest goal they achieve next year.

That’s one thing that Ryan Day has going for him next year. This should be the final year of CFP heartbreak for the Buckeyes. Regardless if they beat TTUN next year or not, they should have a shot to play for a national title. That doesn’t mean Day won’t face consequences if they lose to TTUN again though.

As far as this year’s CFP is concerned, Ohio State football fans should root for anyone but Michigan. Whatever happens will probably be vacated anyway, but no one wants to see them actually win a national title. Everyone would still remember that it happened.

This year marks the end of a ten-year run for the four-team Playoff. In those ten years, Ohio State made the CFP five times and made two National Championship Games. They went 1-1 in those games, winning in 2014 in the inaugural playoff and losing in 2020 during the pandemic season.

Based on the talent the Buckeyes had over the course of the past decade, I would have expected them to win more than just one national title. I count that as a failure overall. That’s especially true over the past three seasons under Ryan Day, who couldn’t even win a Big Ten title.