Ohio State football will have one of its biggest games of the season on Saturday as the No. 5-ranked Indiana Hoosiers come to Columbus.
However, the Buckeyes are a heavy favorite despite their opponent coming in without a loss. Ohio State is expected to win the remainder of its regular season games, as is expected of the Oregon Ducks.
That would mean, without divisions in the Big Ten, the Ducks and Buckeyes would face off for a second time in the Big Ten Championship.
If the Ducks win, the Buckeyes should still remain as the best team without a conference championship, which will place them 5th in the College Football Playoff.
Assuming they beat the No. 12-ranked side and then the No. 4-ranked Miami, they could face the Ducks for a third time in the CFP Semifinals, also assuming Oregon beat the winner of Notre Dame–Tennessee.
Obviously all these matchups could change, but this has been what has been projected for the last few weeks, and it has an increasingly likely chance of becoming a reality.
Former National Championship-winning head coach Urban Meyer outlined how that could become a “nightmare” scenario for the Buckeyes and current head coach Ryan Day.
On The Triple Option, a weekly show hosted by Meyer, Mark Ingram II and Rob Stone, the former laid out why he isn’t a fan of the scenario from a coaches perspective.
“How about this, stare at this for a minute, so you got Ohio State, they’ll beat Boise (State) or at least they should. Then (if) they beat Miami they’re going to play Oregon for the third time this season,” Meyer said. “That’s a nightmare for a coach in a playoff. So they played in Eugene, they’re going to play in Indianapolis, probably, and then they’re going to play again in the [semifinals], unbelievable. First time ever.”
But, as we were reminded, teams change and morph into better versions of themselves. The Buckeyes should be better on a neutral field as well.
Ohio State and Oregon are kind of doing the same dance they did three years ago. Obviously, head to head has to matter, and it will in the rankings. But neither team is the same as they were when they played a month ago.
A rematch in Indy would be a good thing.
— Michael Markoch (@mcmarkoch20) November 17, 2024
That said, with the new CFP rankings dropping later today, it should be a similar dance for a third straight week as the Buckeyes will come in at No. 5 and the Ducks will remain as the No. 1 seed.
