The Ohio State Buckeyes made their final arguments for the top seed in the 2019 College Football Playoff on Saturday night.
Now, they’re waiting to find out if it was enough.
The Buckeyes came from behind to beat Wisconsin, 34-21 and win their third consecutive outright Big Ten championship.
But even before the confetti had finished falling from the ceiling of Lucas Oil Stadium, many people’s minds had already turned from what the Buckeyes had just accomplished to what was next.
Less than 12 hours after Ryan Day and his team left that raised platform in the middle of a football field in Indianapolis, they’ll find out where and against whom they’ll play their next game.
In some ways, this year’s Selection Sunday is somewhat anticlimactic for the Buckeyes. This is the first time in the six-year history of the Playoff when OSU enters knowing that they are comfortably in the four-team field.
In 2014, they needed a 59-0 shocker over Wisconsin to catapult past Baylor and TCU to snag the final spot.
A year later, they entered with cautious optimism and an 11-1 record, but were left out.
In 2016, they made it thanks to a stellar resume, despite not even playing in the Big Ten Championship Game.
The last two seasons have been “close, but not close enough” years.
This Sunday, Ohio State knows it is definitely going to be one of the four teams playing for the national title.
Now, the big question is where they’ll fall in that pecking order.
Big 12 champion Oklahoma is certain to be the fourth-seed, and the team the other three squads would all like to face in the semifinals.
ACC champion Clemson has been stuck at No. 3, and figures likely to remain there despite a blowout win over Virginia on Sunday.
That leaves the Buckeyes and LSU. Both teams have spent time at the top of the CFP poll this season, and both won their title games on Saturday.
Both want to earn that top seed, and to face Oklahoma while the other one has to deal with Clemson.
OSU entered the weekend as the top team in the nation, but struggled out of the gate before pulling away for a 34-21 win over No. 8 Wisconsin.
LSU, on the other hand, thumped No. 4 Georgia, 37-10.
The Buckeyes will likely have more wins over teams ranked among the committee’s top-25, but LSU might have the most impressive win between the teams.
But OSU just survived a three-game gauntlet to close the season, beating the Nos. 8, 10, and 14 teams in this week’s Playoff poll by an average of three scores.
To Ohio State head coach Ryan Day, the Buckeyes have done everything they needed to in order to secure that top seed.
“I think when you look at our résumé, what we’ve done, beating Wisconsin when they’re a top-10 team twice in one year, and then again this three-game stretch was unlike I think any team has had
in the country,” Day said.
“These are top-15 teams, top-10 teams that we played three weeks in a row. If there’s anything else that shows what this team is made of, you saw it here today,” he said.
Junior defensive end Chase Young said that while some people might point to the first half of the Big Ten Championship Game as a reason to drop the Buckeyes, the second half proves they should stay at the top of the poll.
“Definitely. I think we’re No. 1, pointblank, period,” Young said. “I just feel like a team like this, that hit a lot of adversity, has been tested many times, times like today. To see us come back and not just come back but we came back and we dominated. I feel like a team that can flip the switch like that is, you know, a No. 1 worthy team.”
Day said the Buckeyes’ performance Saturday night with a hobbled quarterback was proof enough that they were the nation’s most complete team.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt,” said Day. “When you look at the way that Justin Fields came in off that injury, he played tough and gritty. When you look at all three phases, I think we deserve to be number one.”
“If there’s a better team out there, I’d like to see them.”