Athlon Sports predicts Ohio State to make 2025 College Football Playoff
COLUMBUS — The national champion Ohio State Buckeyes will begin their title defense against the team Athlon Sports is predicting to win the national championship.
Yes, Athlon Sports has predicted the Texas Longhorns to win the SEC and win the national title. But the annual summer publication is also quite high on the Buckeyes for this upcoming season.
The folks at Athlon Sports have released their College Football Playoff field prediction, and the Buckeyes are in the field. They have Ohio State as the No. 5 seed in the CFP, hosting No. 12 seed Boise State from the Mountain West, the only Group of Five team to make the playoff in Athlon’s prediction.
The predicted bids from each conference break down as follows: SEC (4), Big Ten (3), ACC (2), Big 12 (1), Mountain West (1), Independent (1). Big Ten teams to make the predicted CFP include No. 2 seed Penn State (predicted Big Ten champion), No. 5 seed Ohio State and No. 10 seed Oregon.
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Ohio State will not face Oregon during the regular season, but the Buckeyes will face Penn State at home inside the Horseshoe on Nov. 1.
Of course, Ohio State blitzed through the first year of the 12-team College Football Playoff model last season, beating No. 9 seed Tennessee at home before heading West to beat No. 1 seed Oregon in the Rose Bowl and then beating No. 5 seed Texas in the Cotton Bowl. Ohio State went on to beat Notre Dame in the national championship to claim the program’s ninth national title.
Expectations will be just as high this season for Ryan Day’s seventh year as the head football coach for the Buckeyes. They return two of their top players, one on each side of the ball, along with key playmakers at major positions. They also dipped into the transfer portal to help bolster the roster and go with the developed pieces still around from last year’s triumph.