It took over a year, but the Ohio State football team finally lost a game. They lost to Indiana in the Big Ten Championship, giving them their first loss of the season. While the Buckeyes ended up losing the game to Indiana, it didn't have a large bearing on their College Football Playoff hopes.
The Ohio State Buckeyes knew that they were going to be in the CFP before that game started. The question was whether they would be the number-one seed or not. Losing that game meant they weren't going to get that honor, but they expected to still get a first-round bye.
On Selection Sunday, the Buckeyes awaited their fate to know who they were going to play and where that contest would take place. Most pundits believed that they would slide down into the three-seed, and they actually ended up being second in the final CFP Rankings.
Ohio State football team finishes as second seed in final CFP rankings
Despite the loss to the Hoosiers, the committee decided that the Ohio State Buckeyes are the second-best team in the country. That means they are on the opposite side of the bracket as the Hoosiers. This also means that they will face the winner of the 7/10 matchup.
With Ohio State earning the two-seed, they will have that coveted bye. They will have a chance to rest up, something they didn't have the luxury of doing a year ago when they ran through the College Football Playoff en route to a national championship.
That means that Ohio State will take on the winner of seventh-seeded Texas A&M and Miami. Miami got in over Notre Dame, based on the strength of that Week 1 victory over the Fighting Irish. Ohio State can beat either one of those teams, but they would have had a better draw if they were the three-seed.
Ohio State has a couple of weeks to prepare for this game. They need to use that time to fix the red zone offense and the right side of the offensive line.