Ohio State is just days away from playing its first College Football Playoff game this season, as the Buckeyes were granted a first-round bye this year. This time, the Buckeyes will face the 10-seed Miami Hurricanes in their first matchup. Miami was able to beat Texas A&M in the first round, but it certainly was a game some fans wish they could forget.
Quickly after the Hurricanes won their matchup and knew they would face the Buckeyes in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl, the betting odds for the game were released. Ohio State has been a steady favorite for the last week and a half, right now sitting at 9.5-point favorites.
The strange thing about Ohio State being the favorite is that the media isn't treating them as such. For some reason, the media continues to try and pound the narrative that Miami is better at every position and that Ohio State won't be able to keep up with the Hurricanes.
A genuinely amazing tweet from Ohio State media. https://t.co/9lGkLmEJjF
— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) December 28, 2025
Now, while the undersog narrative is sometimes the better one to take, Ohio State fans even know they can't really be the underdogs in this game. There are many reasons that are the case, and here we will discuss a few of them.
First of all, Miami barely made it into the College Football Playoff. In every CFP rankings release, the Hurricanes weren't even in the field, and they magically made it in when the committee randomly decided to snub Notre Dame. The Buckeyes were the No. 1 team and only dropped one spot below the team that beat them in the Big Ten Championship to No. 2.
Second, Ohio State has literally been the best team in the country all season long. The rankings certainly had it wrong in Week 1 when they had Ohio State ranked No. 3. All it took to correct things was the Buckeyes taking down No. 1 Texas in that game, and Ohio State remained in that spot throughout the rest of the regular season.
Finally, Ohio State has had the top-ranked defense all season long. This is a defense that can find any weakness in an opposing team and exploit it. Even though Ohio State lost to Indiana in the Big Ten Championship, the Buckeyes were able to expose some weaknesses in the Hoosiers' offense that other teams hadn't been able to find all season.
So, while the underdog narrative would be fun to take, the Buckeyes are the clear favorite, and anyone who tries to say otherwise must be blind.