Ohio State is the defending national champion, but after 30 minutes of football on New Year’s Eve night against Miami, the Buckeyes weren’t just getting shut out, they had fans and media questioning the whole College Football Playoff system.
Specifically, Ohio State had the college football world wondering if it was really worth it to get that first-round Playoff bye. It’s worth noting that all 4 higher seeds who earned Playoff byes last season lost their quarterfinal games, with rust as a possible factor with each team getting about a month off between the end of the regular season and the start of the Playoff.
Fast-forward to this season, and the trend was continuing in the quarterfinals for the higher seeds, albeit it was just 1 game and half of 1 game at that. Still, Ohio State trailed Miami, 14-0, at halftime, and the Hurricanes, who eliminated Texas A&M in the first round just 11 days ago, were the far more sharper team.
Meanwhile, Ohio State hadn’t played since losing to Indiana in the Big Ten title game way back on Dec. 6, so there’s that near-month-long layoff cropping up again. The Buckeyes didn’t have a bye last season, so they didn’t have to deal with this rust factor on their way to winning the national champioship.
But they do this time around, and that rust was clearly showing against the Canes.
Here is just a sampling of the social media reaction to Ohio State’s forgettable first half:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
