You ask, we answer. Sometimes we ask, others answer. And then other times, we ask, we answer.
Throughout the Ohio State football season, we will be asking and answering questions about the team, college football, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33 or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email HERE.
It’s game day, my friends. That means all of the months of anticipation and excitement, the ups and downs, the pain and frustration are on the verge of culminating in a national championship for our Ohio State Buckeyes. Ryan Day’s squad is set to take on Marcus Freeman’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff National Championship Game in the neighborhood of 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast across nearly all of ESPN’s various outlets, but — depending on the delay — I would recommend the ESPN App on your smart TV because there you can stream the game and listen to the Ohio State radio broadcast with Paul Keels and Jim Lachey.
In anticipation of the game, last week, we asked our Buckeye Nation for their takes on the game, not only what they think the final score margin will be, but also why they were most excited for a potential Ohio State national title. Unfortunately, the SB Nation powers that be did not provide us with the results to the first question and no one was reachable over the holiday weekend, so we are riding with just the results from the score question. We did include an extra graphic to put it into point spread terms.
However, to make up for it, we are throwing in a bonus question that was asked of the entire SBN college football blogosphere. It is fairly similar to our scoring margin question through the lens of the point spread, so if you believe in the wisdom of the people, you might want to check that out.
Question 1: What are you looking forward to the most in the title game?
This is the question that we did not get the results to from our Vox Media overlords. However, I still wanted to share the options and my personal feelings on the question.
Your options were:
– Ability to celebrate a historic group of Buckeyes
– Facing Ohio State alum Marcus Freeman for title
– Iconic matchup between two bluebloods
– Redemption for Ryan Day after calls for his job
– Redemption for the team after Michigan loss
– Shutting up Lou Holtz, Malik Zaire again
– Watching this team play together one last time
For me, Lou Holtz and Malik Zaire are annoying little gnats in the grand scheme of things, and I will be happy to see them swatted tonight, but they don’t matter.
I really respect and root for Marcus Freeman in every game that he doesn’t face his alma mater, so in this case, it doesn’t add much juice for me. The same is true with the fact that this is a matchup of two of the most tradition-rich programs in college football. Perhaps that would be different if the two teams hadn’t completed a home-and-home last season and the novelty was still there.
After that, we are starting to get into options that tug on my heartstrings. I have said for years that I truly like and respect Ryan Day as a human being and think that he has loads of skill as a football coach. However, there have been times — ok, one time — when I lost faith in his ability to lead this program to the heights it now approaches. Should Day break through that barrier, I will be genuinely ecstatic for him. There will be tears shed, and I will gladly line up to apologize for doubting him.
Finally, there are three options that essentially hit on very similar emotions. “Ability to celebrate a historic group of Buckeyes,” “Watching this team play together one last time,” and “Redemption for the team after Michigan loss.”
This team, this collection of Buckeyes is incredibly special. From those who picked Ohio State in the early days of Ryan Day’s tenure, to seniors coming back for one final run at glory, to fighting through four straight losses to Michigan, to being on the precipice of immortality, this is a group of Buckeyes that I will never forget.
I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to watch them compete together one last time and hopefully leave Mercedes-Benz Stadium with a national title in hand.
Question 2: What will the margin of victory be in Monday’s game against Notre Dame?
When the FanDuel Sportsbook opened up the odds for this game, it installed the Buckeyes as 9.5-point favorites. That number, unsurprisingly, has come down and now sits at 8.5. The gold standard college football analytics system SP+ has predicted OSU to win by a score of 27.6 to 21.7; or since actual games aren’t scored in decimals, about 28 to 22.
Ohio State has won each of its three previous CFP games by at least two touchdowns with an average score of 37 to 17.3. Notre Dame has outscored its playoff opponents by an average score of 25.6 to 17.
As I wrote in our LGHL experts’ predictions article, I am going with the Buckeyes to win 31-13 in what becomes essentially a coronation in the second half. From a betting perspective, that would be a cover for Ohio State, but it would just barely be an under of the 45.5-point line. Personally, I would stay away from the total points number, because that seems right about on target.
Here’s how the voting broke down against the spread.
Bonus National Pick: What do national fans think will be the result of the championship game?
Kudos to the fine, informed, insightful, and astute readers from across the SB Nation family of college sites. As a whole, nearly two-thirds expect Ohio State to win the national title tonight, with more people picking the Buckeyes to cover the 8.5-point spread than for Notre Dame to win.
I do wonder how many of those people picking the Irish to pull the upset are Notre Dame fans, how many actually think ND is going to win, and how many just hate Ohio State and will root against them regardless of opponent.
