Notre Dame and Ohio State Advance to College Football Playoff Championship Game
And then there were two. The initial season of the 12 team College Football Playoff is down to the finalists, with a matchup of #7 seed Notre Dame and #8 Ohio State.
Notre Dame advanced by defeating #6 seed Penn State in the Orange Bowl. Tied at 24-24 late in the third quarter, this one looked like almost a sure overtime game. But with 33 seconds left, Penn State QB Drew Allar tried to force a pass over the middle to WR Omari Evans. Notre Dame’s Christian Gray intercepted, and the Fighting Irish took over at the Penn State 42. Notre Dame advanced 19 yards over the next few seconds, setting up a Mitch Jeter 41yard field goal with seven seconds left and the Fighting Irish won 27-24.
Notre Dame (14-1) won its 13th straight game. It’s only loss this season was that infamous 16-14 loss at home to Northern Illinois back in September.
Penn State’s elimination assured that there would not be an all Big Ten final, but there will be one team from that conference. Ohio State scored a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns to break a 14-14 tie with Texas and handed the Longhorns a 28-14 loss in the Cotton Bowl.
This one had a thrilling late fourth quarter as well. With the score 21-14, Texas advanced all the way to the OSU 1 yard line. On second down, Texas running back Quintrevion Wisner was tackled for a seven yard loss. Longhorn QB Quinn Ewers then threw an incomplete pass to make it fourth and goal from the 8 yard line. On the fourth down play Ewers dropped back to pass and was sacked by OSU defensive end Jack Sawyer, who also forced Ewers to fumble. Sawyer picked up the ball and ran 83 yards for the touchdown.
The Longhorns will get another chance against Ohio State on August 30th when they open the 2025 regular season at Columbus. Ohio State (13-2 and Notre Dame will meet in the National Championship Game on January 20th at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta. This will be the ninth meeting between OSU and Notre Dame. The Buckeyes lead the series 6-2. Notre Dame won in 1935 and 1936, and Ohio State has won the six games since then. They’ve met in the post season twice, in the 2006 and 2016 Fiesta Bowls, with OSU winning both. The most recent game was in 2023, when Ohio State won 17-14.
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My Dad was at the 1936 game in South Bend. He saw 17teen more Notre Dame games in which Notre Dame won each one. At the age of 95 he saw his last Notre Dame game He passed at the age of 96 in 2009. He attended and graduated from St. Marys College in 1937. St. Marys coach was Slip Madigan who played for Knute Rockne.St Marys was a power house football team in the1930,s. They deated USC at the Los Angelas Collusiam in 1931. USC was voted number 1 that year with their only lost to St Marys They never played St. Marys again..