For college football fans, the truly bizarre playoffs are wrapping up.
That’s 7:30 p.m. ET Monday (Jan. 20) on ESPN and ESPN2. Depending on the outcome, I’ve got a cool T-shirt idea afterward; feel free to use it.
But first, let’s look back:
The playoffs started by giving byes to the nation’s top four teams. For a week, they could sit back and watch the next eight chumps slug it out.
They did … and a week later, all four of the top teams were defeated. There were more upsets the next week, leaving us with Notre Dame and Ohio State.
Yes, they are football royalty; Notre Dame is going for its 12th national championship, Ohio State for its ninth. But this seemed wildly unlikely at times when both teams saw their offenses sputter:
— In its second game of the season, Notre Dame lost 16-14 to Northern Illinois … which lost four of its next six games, all to mid-level teams.
— In its final game of the regular season, Ohio State lost 13-10 to Michigan (shown here), which (after a national championship the year before) was barely over .500. OSU didn’t qualify for the Big Ten title game, but made the national playoffs.
So now we have the Underdog Bowl – teams that were ranked No. 7 and 8, with a shot at being No. 1.
We also have my T-shirt idea, which only works if Ohio State wins. Envision this with the all-cap letters very large and the parenthetical ones very small:
Michigan
2024 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
(we beat the)
2025 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS