2025 Year in Review: Ohio State Wins Its Ninth National Championship
NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...
[Editor’s note: This article is from Athlon Sports’ 2025 “Year I Review” magazine, which celebrates the year’s champions and relives the biggest moments from across the world of sports. Order your copy online today, or pick one up at retail racks and newsstands nationwide.]
Dive into the annals of college football’s national champions, and it doesn’t take long to see what makes Ohio State’s 2024 crown stand apart.
It was unprecedented in some respects, merely unusual in others. When the scarlet and grey confetti finally fell from the upper reaches of Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta after a 34-23 win over Notre Dame, there was no doubt the Buckeyes were the sport’s undisputed best. But the journey that led to the title was anything but typical.
For starters, it took an FBS-record 16 games to finish the job. Thanks to the new 12-team College Football Playoff format, that mark was bound to fall. While the Fighting Irish were playing in their 16th game, too, it was Ohio State that endured the gauntlet well enough to claim, by the school’s count, its ninth national championship.
Along the way, the Buckeyes defeated a record number of highly ranked opponents, including five in the top-five and six in the top-10 — a resume unmatched in the sport’s modern era.
When the Buckeyes won the inaugural CFP in 2014, the four-team format demanded just two playoff wins. A decade later, the first 12-team format required four.
Of those nine national titles, 2024 also marked the first time Ohio State lost to archrival Michigan en route to the championship. The Wolverines’ 13-10 win — in the home stadium Buckeyes fans call “The Shoe,” no less — dampened OSU’s season in a way only a national championship could have redeemed.
It was Michigan’s fourth straight victory in the rivalry, and without the playoff’s expansion to 12 teams, it almost certainly would have eliminated the Buckeyes from playoff contention. Under the old four-team format, the CFP selection committee never selected a two-loss team, and Michigan was OSU’s second defeat, along with an October stumble at Oregon.
The expanded format left the door cracked open, and Ohio State eventually burst through it — but losing to Michigan at home couldn’t have been more galling. It also ratcheted up the pressure on head coach Ryan Day.
“I’ve got a locker room full of guys who are just devastated,” Day said in his postgame remarks.
As it turned out, the Michigan loss actually allowed OSU to navigate the postseason with one less game to play. It kept the Buckeyes out of the Big Ten Championship Game — where Oregon topped Penn State 45-37 — while Ohio State rested and avoided what otherwise might’ve been a 17-game season.
Underpinning the Buckeyes’ championship run was a preseason moment of candor — or perhaps a misstep — by Director of Athletics Ross Bjork. At Big Ten Media Days in July, he revealed that the aggregate value of the team’s NIL contracts was around $20 million. It was a bold number, seized upon as proof that NIL spending had spun out of control — and as evidence that Ohio State had outspent everyone to such an extent that a national title was almost expected.
No other school was known to be spending that kind of money, and if they were, they weren’t saying so publicly. For perspective, former Alabama coach Nick Saban said the Crimson Tide spent $13 million in 2024.
Bjork’s admission raised the expectations on Day and likely provided bulletin-board material for opponents. Ohio State had assembled some of the nation’s most prized transfers — from quarterback Will Howard to running back Quinshon Judkins to safety Caleb Downs — and none of them came cheap.
But this was a roster also constructed from roots already sunk. Linebacker Jack Sawyer, after the 2023 season, pleaded with some of his most talented teammates to postpone the NFL draft for one more run in Columbus.
As the heart-and-soul leader of a dominant defense, Sawyer’s words carried weight. Running back TreVeyon Henderson and receiver Emeka Egbuka stayed — and they weren’t the only ones. When the draft declaration deadline passed, only two OSU players had chosen to leave: receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. and defensive lineman Mike Hall.
That decision-making produced a veteran-laden roster built to handle sky-high expectations.
Judkins and Henderson both rushed for more than 1,000 yards. Sawyer’s defense allowed an FBS-low 12.9 points per game. And to that experience, the Buckeyes added the most dynamic freshman in college football — wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, who torched secondaries for 1,315 yards and 15 touchdowns.
Ohio State responded to the Michigan loss by roaring through the playoff, routing all four of its opponents — Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame — by double digits.
And they had to do it while navigating the most extensive and demanding playoff bracket in FBS history.
“It’s a great story about a bunch of guys who have just overcome some really tough situations, and at the point where there’s a lot of people that counted us out (they) just kept swinging and kept fighting,” Day said.
Related: Athlon Sports Commemorates the Champions of 2025 With ‘Year in Review’ Magazine
This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Dec 17, 2025, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos