HDuck

AP Top 10 Finishes 2000-2024, 25 seasons: (most recent) 11—Oregon (2024) 9—USC (2016) 5—Boise State (2024) 4—Washington (2023) 4—WSU (2018) 4—Stanford (2015) 3—Utah (2022) 1—ASU (2024) 1—UCLA (2014) 1—Cal (2004) 1—Colorado (2001) 1—Ore St (2000) 0 - Arizona (1998) Oregon 2000, 2001, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2023, 2024

"...think it was too many tOSU games for the nation. Too many CFB games period. After each game, an entire fan base would turn off." Yep, that was one of the similar "conclusions" in the link: "some fans may have experienced fatigue from seeing the same teams multiple times in a short span" Personally, I didn't watch tOSU vs Texas, but I did watch most of the game vs Notre Dame. I suppose the latter because it was a B1G team, and interest in whether they could carry their Rose Bowl success to a title. Unless you were fans of Michigan, Tenn, Oregon, Texas you didn't have that connection. What interest would fans of S. Carolina, for example, have in that game? But, the viewership trend was also down in 2 of the last 3 four-team invitational seasons. Alabama or Georgia - viewer fatigue of same teams? Yet, the 12-team was supposed to renew and excite more fans but didn't seem to happen in quarterfinals, semifinals and final. Still a bit of a puzzle to me...

Festivities for Martin Luther King Day and the Inauguration were largely over by kickoff. My opinion, I kinda doubt they would have pulled fans who like to watch college football. I just didn't expect it, and the hoopla by ESPN prior to the game was anticipation of a "ratings buster." I mean, what are the top "brands?" Ohio State TV viewership stats over the years seems to lead the whole country when they are half of the matchup. Notre Dame, Alabama, Texas, USC, Michigan (maybe) most years. I just thought those two...albeit ESPN family cable/satellite networks...rather than ABC would not be third from bottom of the 11 CFP games? That number didn't include "streaming" but doubt it will edge up much. My theory about it not being "intersectional" drawing nation-wide fans seems undercut by the numbers in this link. Could it be that no SEC area team was involved? Maybe, but looking at the numbers in the link and rearranging them by date order that may not hold water either. Would it impact Notre Dame's value as a potential B1G member? Declining TV ratings for College Football Playoff National Title should be reason for concern SATURDAYBLITZ.COM The College Football Playoff (CFP) National Championship has long been a marquee event in the sports world, drawing millions of viewers each year. This year's c

ESPN announced Wednesday that the Buckeyes' second national championship in the CFP era averaged 22.1 million viewers. It was the most-watched, non-NFL sporting event over the past year, but a 12% drop from the 25 million who tuned in for Michigan's 34-13 victory over Washington in 2024. 22.1 million was the third-lowest audience of the 11 CFP title games, with all three occurring in the past five years. The audience peaked at 26.1 million viewers during the second quarter (8:30 to 8:45 p.m. ET) when the score was tied at 7. 22.1M - Ohio State vs Notre Dame final 21.1M - Ohio State vs Oregon quarterfinal 20.6M - Ohio State vs Texas semifinal 17.8M - Notre Dame vs Penn State semifinal Top of CFP/BCS Final History 35.6M - ABC - 2006 - Texas vs USC 34.1M - ESPN - 2015 - Ohio St vs Oregon 30.8M - ABC - 2010 - Alabama vs Texas 29.1M - ABC - 2003 - Ohio St vs Miami 28.8M - Fox - 2007 - Florida vs Ohio St 28.4M - ESPN - 2018 - Alabama vs Georgia 27.3M - ESPN - 2011 - Auburn vs Oregon 22.1M - ESPN -2025 - would be third lowest of the 11 CFP games. Georgia vs TCU was lowest. Notre Dame and Ohio State two huge brands. What happened? Monday game? Both teams from Midwest rather than cross-sectional?

Michigan has the 4-0 to boast about. tOSU has the Connor Stalions fiasco to Jerk about. How the season ends after bowl games is almost irrelevant to the two fan bases. Hard for many of us who haven't been close to rivalry to understand, but the "craw" is a big thing to both.

Final AP Poll ranking: tOSU: 6 at No. 1, 8 at No. 2 Alabama: 12 and 4 Notre Dame: 8 and 5 Oklahoma: 7 and 3 USC: 5 and 5 tOSU AP: 1942, 1954, 1968, 2002, 2014, 2024 National Football Foundation: 1970 (No. 5 in AP after Rose Bowl loss) Coaches: 1957 (No. 2 AP - behind Auburn) Football Writers - not AP: 1961 (No. 2 AP - behind Alabama) 3 of those 9 claimed as champions came after beating Oregon in the post-season: 1957, 2014, 2024 Both Alabama and Auburn were undefeated. tOSU had a loss or tie so didn't get the AP nod.

The Michigan loss didn’t “mean nothing.” It meant everything. For Michigan fans it meant the prior season's undefeated champion, beat this season's 2-loss champion, and beat them for the fourth straight time. It beat them with a rookie coach at Columbus. It beat them despite entering the game with a 6-5 record. It beat them knowing that 0-4 really sticks in the craw of Bugeye fans.

Chris Vannini - writer for The Athletic I realized how difficult this exercise would be when I concluded Oregon should be No. 2. I had Notre Dame here initially, as the final AP Top 25 did. But as I went back through, the Oregon case was fairly simple on paper. Oregon has a win over Ohio State, unlike Notre Dame. It has four top-15 wins in total and has the fewest losses, none of which came against Northern Illinois. The 41-21 Rose Bowl loss to Ohio State may ultimately be how people remember this Oregon team, but the regular season still matters, to me at least. Notre Dame’s run to the final was thrilling, impressive and earned. But the rest of the Irish resume was lacking. Oregon didn’t win a CFP game but had three wins over CFP teams (Ohio State, Penn State and Boise State), same as Notre Dame. Against common opponents (Ohio State and Penn State), Oregon looked better, and the Rose Bowl blowout loss to Ohio State is still better than the home loss to Northern Illinois, in my opinion.

GatOrlando, adding on to Charles here, USC essentially has a fully endowed football team. Donors have created endowments which essentially pay the cost of each position on the team. For example, the "Dubar Endowed Free Safety Position." It takes a lot of wealthy alumni/donors to so something like that, and I don't know of any other school that comes close. Maybe Notre Dame? Maybe Tex A&M? I don't know. Endowed Scholarships USCTROJANS.COM Endowed Scholarships As for size of school based on current undergrad enrollment Oregon has just under 20,000 which was one of the smallest in the old Pac12, and obviously even more so smaller in the Big Ten. USC is larger undergrad enrollment than Oregon, around 21.5-22.0 thousand. Notre Dame is under 10,000. About 25% of USC's undergrads are foreign students. My observation, perhaps unfair, is that USC folks are pretty cliquish. Their primary association is with other USC folks. That is a contributing factor of why you "don't run into many." As Charles said, USC has a lot of money. Endowments, wealthy alums, wealthy "subway fans", wealthy parents sending their kids to school there. But, again my observation, many of those folks draw a direct line between their wealth and how much influence they "believe" they should have at USC. When the train of wins is rolling, they are all on board. But, when it isn't, they become notorious second guessers about how things should be run and that is impacting the current environment at USC from NIL, to coach hiring decisions, to academic programs, to....

12 of the 56 voters in the AP poll also had Penn State above Oregon.

Lanning's ballot, Ryan Day's ballot, and many others... How did college football coaches vote in the US LBM Coaches Poll? See every ballot in the final Top 25 rankings WWW.USATODAY.COM The college football season is over and the US LBM Coaches Poll has been released. How did each coach vote? We reveal every...

12 of the 56 AP Poll voters had Penn State above Oregon. PSU did beat SMU and Boise St in the Playoff...so there is that I suppose. AP champions who lost to team that finished unranked since final poll moved to after bowl games in 1968: 2024 Ohio St (Michigan) 2016 Clemson (Pitt) 2014 Ohio St (Va Tech) 2007 LSU (Kentucky/Arkansas) 2003 USC (Cal) 1982 Penn St (Alabama) 1977 Notre Dame (Ole Miss) 1975 Oklahoma (Kansas)

Likewise true of NCAA women's basketball 1990-2016. If you weren't Tennessee or UConn, your chances were very very slim.

1-Ohio St 2-Notre Dame 3-Oregon - only one-loss team 4-Texas 5-Penn St 6-UGA 7-Arizona St 8-Boise St 9-Tennessee 10-Indiana Giving the Championship Game loser favorable ranking over one-loss teams is not without precedent, for example: In 2022, it was Georgia TCU 13-2 Michigan 13-1 In 2014 Ohio St Oregon 13-2 TCU 12-1 In 2013 Florida St Auburn 12-2 Mich State 13-1 Prior to 1968, there was no final ranking after bowl games. For example, in 1964 Alabama was No. 1 in the last poll, then lost to Texas in the Orange Bowl. But, it retained its No. 1 historical ranking because there was no voting after the bowls. No. 2 Arkansas was undefeated after Cotton Bowl and had beat Texas in Austin. Arkansas stayed at No. 2 in the AP and UPI polls, but was designated No. 1 by Helms, Billingsley and some other "pollsters." From the first ranking in 1936 until 1968, Alabama was not the only "national champion" at the end of November who subsequently lost in early January. But, I use Arkansas situation of a program that doesn't have an AP national title, but probably should in today's poll environment. Ohio State has now finished in the AP Top Two 14 times. The most of any program. Six No. 1's, and eight No. 2's. When Ohio State declares they have won more than six titles, they are including non-AP final rankings. The Ducks have been No. 2 three times, and No. 3 two times. The three No. 2's is matched by Washington. Neither program has an AP No. 1 final ranking. Oregon's 2's seasons: 2014, 2012, 2001. Oregon's 3's: 2024, 2010. Washington's No. 2's: 2023, 1991, 1984. UW's No. 3: 2000. The USA Today Coaches Poll puts Texas (3) ahead of Oregon (4) and Tennessee (8) ahead of Boise St (9) The AFCA coaches poll has not been released yet.

2025 @CircaSports @CFBPlayoff title odds Ohio St 5-1 Georgia 6-1 Oregon 6.5-1 Texas 7-1 Penn St 9-1 Alabama 12-1 Notre Dame 17-1 Clemson 20-1 LSU, Ole Miss, Tennessee 25-1 A&M 30-1 Michigan 40-1 Auburn, Miami 50-1 S Carolina, USC 60-1 Florida 80-1 Nebraska, Oklahoma 100-1

Ohio State shows no matter the system, plenty of five-star talent is only path to a title WWW.USATODAY.COM No matter the playoff system, elites like the Buckeyes will stack blue-chip talent on National Signing Day and get even more in the transfer portal.

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐒𝐈𝐗𝐓𝐇 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 NFL 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐭 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐅𝐁𝐒 𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞. Sunday talent wins. 2025 Ohio State (expect it on draft day) 2024 Michigan 13 2023 Georgia 10 2022 Georgia 15 2021 Alabama 10 2020 LSU 14 Not sure whether a title calls attention to the roster and NFL comes calling, or whether those teams had best rosters and that is why they won? But, definitely a trend there.

Notre Dame, at the end 2024: L – 23-34 Ohio State – CFP championship 2020: L – 14-31 Alabama – CFP championship 2018: L – 3-30 Clemson – CFP semi-final 2013: L – 14-42 Alabama – BCS championship

OSU: 21 pass attempts, 41 rush attempts ND: 32 and 26 62 and 58 plays on offense. Not a lot of plays. OSU had averaged 29 and 33. 62/game. Not like the old days, huh, Chip?

Howard goes 17 of 21, by percentage a championship game record.

Tonight's CFP Title Game Attendance: 77,660 Second-best CFP title game attendance ever. No. 1 is Oregon vs. Ohio State (2015), which drew 85,689 at Cowboys AT&T Stadium. BCS era: 94,906 in 2010. 94,208 in 2014. 93,986 in 2006. 93,781 in 2002. All four held at Rose Bowl.

65-7 Georgia vs TCU, 2023 55-19 USC vs Oklahoma, 2005 42-14 Alabama vs Notre Dame, 2013 44-16 Clemson vs Alabama, 2019 52-24 Alabama vs OSU 2021 41-14 Florida vs OSU, 2007 42-20 OSU vs Oregon, 2015

Just like the Rose Bowl, Chipster is giving them the eye candy and taking ND defense out of position. 28-7. At this point, I hope OSU blows them out. ND 14-42 vs Alabama in 2013 game.

Notre Dame ran 18 plays on the opening TD drive -- and ate up 9:45 of game clock. Both are title game records. 7 plays attempted after that. Total 93 yds

Good players make plays. Judkins got himself open in the endzone to be an easy target. OSU 11 plays, 75 yds 10 plays, 76 yds 11 plays, 80 yds halftime 231 yds, OSU - 428/game 2024 - 298 allowed by ND in 2024 93 yds, ND - 405/game 2024 - 251 allowed by OSU in 2024 OSU defense yds allowed, total game top 7: 99 - W. Michigan 151 - Indiana 177 - Akron 206 - Purdue 226 - Iowa 234 - MIchigan 246 - Michigan St bottom 3: 496 - Oregon 341 - Texas 276 - Oregon