The frontrunner, the colossus, the team no opponent should want to face in College Football Playoff, hid in plain sight. No hiding now, Ohio State.
Money talks. Talent follows. Ryan Day built Ohio State into nation’s most talented team, thanks in part to NIL investment.
Buckeyes will carry frontrunner mantle into Cotton Bowl game against Texas.
The front-runner, the colossus, the team no opponent should want to face in this College Football Playoff, hid in plain sight.
If we ever didn’t see it, then we let ourselves look past the 300-pound gorilla. We either allowed an unsightly loss to a bitter rival cloud our judgement, or we ignored college football’s history that tells us the most talented teams enjoy the best shot at national titles.
Coaches can make college football sound pretty complex, but when you boil it down, the coiner of the phrase “Jimmys and Joes beat X’s and O’s” was one smart cookie.
Ohio State, its first two playoff games, combined an unmatchable amount of “Jimmy and Joe” talent with shrewd X’s and O’s.
The result: Back-to-back blowout wins against teams that had combined for a 23-2 record. That included its 41-21 Rose Bowl rout of No. 1 Oregon.
No more hiding in plain view, Ohio State. No more playing opossum against Michigan and getting to spend a few weeks as a doubted squad.
We see you clearly now, Buckeyes. You’re the monster. You sit in the catbird seat. You’re the team that, on your best day, performs as well as 2019 LSU or 2020 Alabama or 2022 Georgia. You’re the front-runner, not only against Texas in the Cotton Bowl, but against whomever comes next.
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Ohio State investment pays off in College Football Playoff
Ohio State spent a reported $20 million in NIL investment to assemble this team, and you don’t need to be an NFL scout to spot the Buckeyes’ obvious advantages.
“You guys keep talking about a $20 million roster,” former Alabama coach Nick Saban said on “College GameDay” before the Buckeyes’ season opener. “If you don’t pay the right guys, you’ll be (crap) out of luck.”
Well, Nick, they paid the right guys, and that’s what made the Michigan loss so inexplicable, because the Buckeyes are loaded.
The College Football Playoff semifinals feature four premier defenses, but Ohio State’s ranks as the best, a unit that’s not surrendered more than 17 points to any opponent other than Oregon.
More, the Buckeyes built the most complete team, featuring the nation’s most elite receivers, a backfield tandem as good as any, an improving offensive line and a quarterback who only muddled through one truly bad game. Will Howard’s lone stumble just so happened to occur when the most eyes were upon him, while Ohio State continued its cursed streak against Michigan.
Saban could tell us all about the value of talent acquisition. College football’s existence before NIL collectives and transfer free agency was one of a few teams, headlined by Saban’s Alabama, stockpiling the deepest wealth of talent, emerging as juggernauts and ruling with a strong grip.
Saban did a lot well at Alabama, but his persistent ability to magnetize, unify and develop the most talented players ranked as his super skill, unlocking his six national titles in Tuscaloosa.
The playing field leveled somewhat these past few years when donors from coast to coast started buying players with deals doled out through organized collectives rather than an under-the-table bagman.
Although NIL spending is not open record, nobody would deny Ohio State paced the spending war for this season. Money talks. Talent followed. Ohio State coach Ryan Day put together the best roster, Buckeyes fans knew it, and they fumed after Day lost twice during the regular season, including to the dreaded rival up north.
And because of that loss to Michigan, the CFP selection committee got heavy-handed with the Buckeyes’ seeding. The committee placed a No. 8 next to their name, after they’d built a résumé worthy of the No. 5 seed, awarded to the top at-large team.
Against Texas, how will Ohio State react to front-runner’s mantle?
That seed and the accompanying bracket placement dealt the Buckeyes the toughest path to the national championship game among teams seeded within the top eight.
No matter. Talent prevailed.
Asked to explain the 187-yard receiving day from Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State’s freshman wide receiver, in the Rose Bowl, Oregon coach Dan Lanning said: “The guy is NFL-ready.”
So are many of Smith’s teammates. Lanning’s Ducks trailed Ohio State by 34 points long before the sun began to sink beyond the San Gabriel Mountains.
The NFL must wait on Smith – he’s a 19-year-old performing like a multi-time All-Pro – but plenty of Buckeyes will hear their names called by Roger Goodell three months from now.
The easy narrative became that losing to Michigan motivated the Buckeyes or refocused them or forced the coaching staff to remove guardrails from the game plan. A serving of truth probably could be found in each idea, but the other reality is, Ohio State spent much of the season performing like a top-tier squad, wilted on one November day against a rival, then resurrected as the behemoth it is.
By smashing Tennessee and splintering Oregon, Ohio State showed its cards, and there’s no hiding it now. The Buckeyes wrested away favorite status. Are they strong enough to carry that mantle?
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer. Subscribe to read all of his columns.