When Will Howard left the Kansas State football team after the 2023 regular season, he had a decision to make. He could either enter the NFL Draft and embark on a professional career or take one last shot at his dream of winning a College Football Playoff National Championship. Howard opted for one more college season at Ohio State, and …

Getty Images Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith capped off another sensational night with a championship-clinching, 56-yard reception on third down in the final minutes of 2025 College Football National Championship. The reception set up a field goal to take a 34-23 lead and put the game out of reach. With a touchdown catch in the second quarter, Smith also …

Following the National Championship, Dan Wetzel, Ross Dellenger & SI’s Pat Ford react to Ohio State beating Notre Dame in the College Football National Championship. They discuss the dominant start and overall performance by Ohio State. Additionally, they discuss the changing narrative around Ryan Day now that he’s won a national title. They also cover Notre Dame’s shortcomings in the …

Getty Images The first 12-team College Football Playoff produced plenty of thrillers among plenty of the sport’s greatest programs, and Ohio State finished on top courtesy of a 34-23 win over Notre Dame in the championship game. It served as the Buckeyes’ ninth national championship as recognized by the NCAA, tied for sixth-most all-time, as well as their 978th win. …

ATLANTA — Notre Dame is angry. Notre Dame is really angry. Notre Dame wants the media to get out of the locker room. Actually, Notre Dame wants the media to get the [expletive] out. Forty minutes have passed, give or take, since Ohio State’s 34-23 win in Monday night’s College Football Playoff national championship game, and the Fighting Irish — …

ATLANTA — Notre Dame may have fallen short of the College Football Playoff National Championship, losing to Ohio State 34-23, but the fact that they’re even here in the first place is quite the achievement in itself.  After taking the worst loss any CFP contender had all season in dropping a home game to Northern Illinois, the Irish’s CFP hopes seemed dead …

For the second season in a row, a Big Ten team has ended the season on top of the college football world. Ohio State started the 12-team College Football Playoff era the way it did the four-team playoff era by winning the national championship on Monday night in Atlanta. The Buckeyes blew out Notre Dame by building a decisive 31-7 …

ATLANTA — Please stay, Ryan Day. Give dear ol’ Ohio State a chance to win consecutive national championships. Give the Buckeyes a shot at being what Alabama was or what Georgia might be. Please stay, Ryan Day, because right now you’re too good for the Buckeyes. That’s less of a shiv in the back to the crazed Scarlet and Gray …

More than half of the players in another top-20 Penn State football recruiting class are getting an early start on preparing for the 2025 season. Sixteen scholarship members of this group were expected to enroll early and participate in winter workouts and spring practice. The rest of the 27-member class, which should be finalized by the traditional National Signing Day …

ATLANTA — It was third-and-11 with the College Football Playoff National Championship in the balance, and Ohio State had twice fecklessly run into the teeth of a Notre Dame defense that was trying desperately to get off of the field. Someone had to make a play, and on this Ohio State team who else would you expect to be called …

ATLANTA — Here are five things we learned from No. 8 Ohio State’s 34-23 win over No. 7 Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff final on Monday night: Ohio State Buckeyes earned the title This group navigated an unprecedented stretch to win a national championship. It took four postseason wins for them to lift the trophy, including toppling three …

ATLANTA — Marcus Freeman peered behind the barricade outside the Notre Dame locker room, his eyes trained on a television screen screwed into a concrete wall in the bowels of Mercedes-Benz Stadium. On the screen, Ohio State coach Ryan Day was readying himself to hoist the national championship trophy after holding off a furious comeback by the Irish in a …

The Ohio State Buckeyes are the first-ever College Football Playoff National Champions of the 12-team era. Caroline Fenton, Jason Fitz & Adam Breneman react to the biggest game of the season as Ohio State beats Notre Dame 34-23. Buckeye QB Will Howard led his team to victory in a nearly perfect performance behind yet another new Ohio State offensive line …

ATLANTA — Watching Ohio State this last month in the College Football Playoff was like watching an aircraft carrier turn on a dime. How can one coach be so vilified and then legendary in the same seven-week period? Ain’t that America — or Ohio State.  Maybe both.  “Everyone is saying you’re wonderful and you’re really not,” former coach Jim Tressel …

ATLANTA — Fourth down has been the friend of Notre Dame football all year, and it was again at times in Monday’s 34-23 loss to Ohio State in the CFP national championship. It just wasn’t in the second half on two occasions when the Irish needed it to be. Trailing 28-7 with more than 11 minutes left in the third …