ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — There is still a sense for some Ohio State players that they haven't done anything yet, even after winning twice already this postseason to get into the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl against Texas.
"Absolutely. I have been here for four years, and I have absolutely no hardware to show for it," receiver Emeka Egbuka said. “That’s really on the forefront of our minds.”
While Ohio State (12-2) is the only school to appear in four of the last six CFPs — all since Ryan Day became head coach — and won four consecutive Big Ten titles from 2017-20 before Egbuka and most of the current players arrived, the Buckeyes' last national championship was 10 years ago. That was the first season of the four-team College Football Playoff, when they won the title at AT&T Stadium, the home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys where they play the in-state Longhorns (13-2).
The winner Friday night advances to play Orange Bowl champion Notre Dame (14-1) for the national title in Atlanta on Jan. 20.
Ohio State is the No. 8 seed now favored to win the national title after two lopsided playoff wins: 42-17 at home against Tennessee before a dominating 41-21 win over undefeated Big Ten champion and top seed Oregon in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day.
“We’re just fighting to get another opportunity to play with each other,” said linebacker and captain Cody Simon, one of nine Ohio State players still around from 2020. “That's our biggest motivator right now. ... We don't want to end this run right now."
Texas last won the national title 19 years ago, and didn't make its CFP debut until last season as the Big 12 champion. Coach Steve Sarkisian's fifth-seeded Longhorns are now the last team standing for the Southeastern Conference, the only league that has been represented in the semifinals each year — and that has six of the last nine national champions.
The 15 games for the Longhorns, who played in the SEC championship game before wins over Clemson and Big 12 champ Arizona State, are already one more than they had ever played in a single season.
"I like the new playoff dynamic. It’s fun,” Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers said.
“We’re obsessed with finishing up,” said Longhorns All-America senior cornerback Jahdae Barron. “But we’re obsessed with being enamored with us, and giving every day the respect that it deserves. And just being loving to one another and having a level bond with one another and continuing to build the culture.”
Ohio State quarterback Will Howard and Ewers both won Big 12 championships the last time they played at AT&T Stadium.
Texas was the Big 12 champ last season. Howard transferred to Ohio State from Kansas State, which two years ago beat CFP-bound and undefeated TCU in overtime for that league title.
Howard started three games against Texas while with the Wildcats. Those were all losses, as was a fourth game when he was on the sideline.
The best matchup of the game could be Barron vs. Buckeyes freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith. The 5-foot-11, 200-pound Barron won the Thorpe Award as the nation’s top defensive back. But Barron gives up four inches and 15 pounds to Smith, the second-team All-American who may be the most electric freshman in the country. Smith has 70 receptions for 1,224 yards and 14 touchdowns. Smith has four touchdowns in these playoffs.
“He’s a big baller. Strong,” Barron said. “He’s a physical player, and I’ll have to be physical.”
In its two losses to Georgia this season, Texas struggled to protect Ewers and surrendered 13 sacks. Now the Longhorns face a Buckeyes defensive front that sacked Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel eight times in the Rose Bowl. Jack Sawyer and J.T. Tuimoloau each had two sacks in that game. Sawyer was Ewers’ roommate when the Longhorns QB spent a semester in Columbus before transferring to Texas.
Texas is playing in its 23rd Cotton Bowl, the most for any team. But this is the Longhorns' first in 22 years. Ohio State is in its second Cotton Bowl in a row, and fourth overall, after losing 14-3 to Missouri last season.
While the winner plays for the national title, the loser goes into an offseason that will lead up to a rematch when the two teams meet in a 2025 season opener at Ohio State on Aug. 30.
Their only previous regular-season meetings were a home-and-home series in 2005 and 2006. The road team won both of those games and went on to play for the national championship — Vince Young and the Longhorns beat Southern California for the 2005 national title. Ohio State lost to Florida the following season.
AP Sports Writer Jim Vertuno contributed to this report.
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FILE - Ohio State linebacker Cody Simon (0) celebrates after his sack against Western Michigan during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete, File)
FILE - Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers (3) throws against Florida during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Austin, Texas, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
FILE - Texas defensive back Jahdae Barron (7) celebrates with teammate Barryn Sorrell (88) after making in interception against Arkansas during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in Fayetteville, Ark. (AP Photo/Michael Woods, File)
FILE - Ohio State receiver Emeka Egbuka, left, and running back Quinshon Judkins celebrate their touchdown against Iowa during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete, File)
DANIA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — It was some combination of religion, a grudge involving Knute Rockne and maybe the simple notion that some people just don't like Notre Dame.
Back in the 1920s, the Fighting Irish made what might have been their biggest push to join what would become the Big Ten but the athletic director at Michigan blocked it. Ever since, Notre Dame has been an independent — an increasingly rare iconoclast as college athletics becomes more controlled by mega-conferences almost by the day.
How's that working out for the Irish, who beat Penn State 27-24 on Thursday night to reach the College Football Playoff championship game?
Well, instead of splitting the $14 million they earned by reaching the semifinals — the Penn State of the Big Ten had to — they've pocketed every penny.
Notre Dame might not have the voice of the Southeastern Conference or Big Ten when it comes to the big-time decisions guiding this sport, but it has a seat at the table, along with another $12 million starting in 2026 — also unsplit with a league — simply for being part of this arrangement.
“For people at Notre Dame, it's a point of differentiation,” said John Heisler, the longtime sports information guru who has written 10 books on the Irish. “And it's just not something that anybody in South Bend really wants to give up on.”
It wasn't always that way. As far back as 1899, Notre Dame was looking to be admitted into what was about to become the Big Nine. That time, it essentially got passed over in favor of Iowa and Indiana.
A generation later, in 1926, Rockne, then coaching the Fighting Irish, tried again to bring Notre Dame into the Big Ten.
Michigan's athletic director, Fielding Yost, led the move to block the Irish — a move that, depending on what you read, came because he was anti-Catholic or involved in a feud with the Notre Dame legend that dated back more than a decade.
Either way, Notre Dame was left out and the Fighting Irish and Michigan, just a three-hour drive apart, didn't play from 1910-1941.
Michigan and other schools' refusal to play the team in South Bend, Indiana, opened opportunities Notre Dame still takes advantage of to this day.
The Fighting Irish have played USC every year since 1926. They have annual meetings with Army and Navy, and have played Stanford most years since 1988. More recently, they signed a deal that fills out their schedule with five games against Atlantic Coast Conference teams each season.
In today's world, where cable, streaming and social media allow for every team to market themselves as a national product, that might not sound revolutionary. Decades ago, it was.
“I think the feeling was, if Notre Dame would have just wanted to be a Midwest institution, they would've joined the Big Ten a long time ago,” Heisler said. “But that's not just the aspiration in terms of where their students in general come from, or where they recruit. They've always been very comfortable recruiting from all over the place.”
For decades, Notre Dame lived in a world where the big-name independent was not an anomaly. Miami, Pitt, Florida State and Syracuse were among them, as was this week's opponent, Penn State.
In that atmosphere, the Fighting Irish went along with others in the 1970s and joined the College Football Association, which was established to maximize value for TV rights.
By 1990, with the CFA's effectiveness as a TV market-maker in decline and Notre Dame football reaching a new golden era under Lou Holtz, the Fighting Irish in 1991 cut their own deal with NBC that, in many ways, was the first domino to fall on the multibillion-dollar road this sport is on today.
The SEC expanded to 12 teams in 1992 and added what was then a revolutionary title game to cap off its season. Over the next three-plus decades, virtually every program got caught up in the mix of mega-conferences that, in turn, have helped shape the 12-team college playoff that debuted this season.
Holding steady throughout, in part thanks to the NBC deal that runs through the 2029 season, has been Notre Dame. Even though the Irish haven't won the national title since 1988, their brand stayed strong enough to demand a spot in that playoff mix.
One drawback is that, without a conference championship available to win, the Fighting Irish could not find an easier path to the title by earning a bye that goes to those league's champions.
Another is that because the big conferences have generated such massive media rights, Notre Dame needs every penny it can get to stay competitive. Its football program has one of the nation's biggest budgets, at about $72 million a year, according to Sportico.
“We view being independent as a positive thing," coach Marcus Freeman said. "We sell it to our recruits as a positive thing. We know we can't play in a championship game and we can't have a first-round bye. But we continue to use not playing in Week 13 as our bye. In terms of the finances and the TV deals, I'd say that's another positive.”
More change is destined for college football, its playoff system and the conferences themselves.
At the joint pregame news conference Wednesday, Penn State coach James Franklin opined about the need for more uniformity across all of college football — for one, to give the playoff selection committee a more “apples to apples” comparison when sorting through teams to fill the bracket.
“This is no knock at coach or Notre Dame, but I think everyone should be in a conference," Franklin said, before almost apologetically looking at Freeman on the other end of the table.
Freeman said he doesn't have opinions as strong as Franklin's on the state of college football, and doesn't see the need for Notre Dame to someday be like everybody else.
“We pride ourselves and our independence,” the Fighting Irish coach said. “If they come out with a decision where they tell us we can't be independent, we'll make it work.”
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FILE - Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts (0) celebrates with teammate Armel Mukam (88) during the second half against Georgia in the quarterfinals of a College Football Playoff, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
FILE- Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard (13) celebrates after a quarterfinal game against Georgia in the College Football Playoff, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
FILE - Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne, left, and team captain Clem Crowe watch the team practice in 1925. (AP Photo/File)
FILE - Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard (13) scrambles up field during the first half against Georgia in the quarterfinals of a College Football Playoff, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton, File)
FILE - In this 1924, file photo, Notre Dame's infamous backfield, "The Four Horsemen," from left, Don Miller, Elmer Layden, Jim Crowley and Harry Stuhldreherare pose on the practice field in South Bend, Ind. (AP Photo/File)
FILE - In this Nov. 21, 2011, file photo, the hallway between the locker room and the field at Notre Dame stadium shows the sign "Play like a Champion Today" in South Bend, Ind. (AP Photo/Joe Raymond, File)
FILE - Notre Dame's Joe Montana tries to brush off Reggie Wilkes of Georgia Tech during his six-yard gain in first quarter of an NCAA college football game, Nov. 7, 1977 game at South Bend, Ind. (AP Photo/File)
FILE - Notre Dame's head coach Lou Holtz and the Fighting Irish walk onto the field of the Los Angeles Coliseum to warm up for an NCAA college football game against Southern California Saturday, Nov. 30, 1996 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, File)
