If Ohio State doesn’t win the national championship this year, then it’s because of these 3 reasons
By John Buhler
The Ohio State football team should be good once again, but probably not good enough to win the national championhip this season.
Even if the Ohio State football team is one of the likeliest teams to make the College Football Playoff, it may not be in the cards for the Buckeyes to win a national championship this year.
Ohio State has made the College Football Playoff four times in school history. The Buckeyes won the inaugural four-team tournament in 2014. While they were able to reach the national title bout last year, the Buckeyes ran into the buzzsaw that was the 2020 Alabama Crimson Tide. Even if they do not face Alabama again, Ohio State is not winning back-to-back playoff games this year.
Here are three reasons why we cannot count on Ohio State winning the national championship.
Ohio State football: 3 reasons Buckeyes will not win national title in 2021
3. Ryan Day is bound to lose a conference game, so who hands him his first L?
2021 will mark Ryan Day’s third season as the Buckeyes head coach. So far he is 23-2 at the helm since taking over for Urban Meyer very late in the 2019 college season. Interestingly enough, his two losses have been in the playoff. Ohio State fell to Clemson in 2020 in the national semifinals and to Alabama in last year’s national championship. He has yet to lose a game in Big Ten play.
While Ohio State is the premier program in its conference, we saw a year ago teams that should never beat them almost do it in the Indiana Hoosiers and the Northwestern Wildcats. Though we should expect Ohio State to go 9-0 in Big Ten play and beat whoever comes out of the Big Ten West in Indianapolis, Day is going to drop a conference game at some point, possibly in 2021.
Doing so will knock the Buckeyes down to at best the No. 3 seed, probably the No. 4 seed if they are a one-loss Big Ten champion. That is going to put them up against it come playoff time vs. a superior opponent. Though the Buckeyes could become battle-tested, we are pretty much banking on them not losing a conference game if they are indeed good enough to win the national title.
Teams like Indiana, Michigan and Penn State could be ready to upset Ohio State this year.