2015 College Football National Championship results: No. 4 = No. 1

Oh, those crafty spray-painting vandals. You need to watch out for them.

Playoff champion Ohio State suffered more starting QB games missed due to injury than every other national champion since 1985 combined, including legit co-champs.

Those numbers, according to NCAA stats and a records review:

You might not be allowed to show it on TV for very long, but you’ll always have that almost-profane shirt celebrating Ohio State’s championship over Oregon, Mr. FOCK YOUR O guy.

“It’s just one of those things you had to do,” Grant said. “It’s not really ‘man I need to do this,’ it’s ‘go ahead and do this’ because it’s for your life. I knew it was coming in the back of my head, so it wasn’t really hard.”

The Big Ten Network is airing Ohio State’s celebration on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to noon. A packed house is expected and Ohio State’s band is even playing.

Briles might be right, but it’s tough to know for sure just how close Baylor was to getting the fourth Playoff spot. He said he had a source who knew, but that would mean the person he talked to either A) was a voting member of the selection committee that violated the “secret ballot” voting process, or B) talked to someone else who was a selection committee member that violated the “secret ballot” voting process. Also, if it was an 8-4 vote, that means not a single person voted for TCU.

It’s not difficult to imagine the vote being very close, but at this point it’s academic. The Buckeyes got in, and they validated the selection committee’s choice.

In the past four decades, the conference had two titles. The first was won by Michigan parlaying a dominating defense and a pedestrian offense into a 12-0 season that ended with Ryan Leaf and Mike Price pleading for one more play at the end of a nip-and-tuck Rose Bowl. The second was won in double overtime by an Ohio State team that made a habit of narrow wins over mediocre opponents before upsetting a Miami team that outgained the Bucks by 1.1 yards per play.

The conference was the last major holdout opposed to the Playoff. It’s not hard for a cynical observer to conclude that Jim Delany knew that Big Ten teams had such a hard time winning titles in the old system that tacking additional layers of competition would reduce the chances of a Midwestern championship even further.

Ohio State’s College Football Playoff trophy was at a Columbus Kroger today, so Buckeyes fans could take their pictures with the trophy. However, one notable non-Ohio State fan was there, too:

But here’s the thing: look at how long the line was:

Thursday, quarterback Cardale Jones appeared at a press conference to announce he’s coming back to Ohio State instead of entering the NFL Draft.

This is despite winning the Big Ten, Sugar Bowl, and National Championship in three career starts and possessing extra-ideal pro physical traits. He made this decision while saying lots of great things about getting his degree in order to set an example for local kids and younger family members.

1. This cheese sculpture is president until August:

2. Easter egg hunts replaced with Culver’s butter burger hunts

“Change in Elo rating across the season” shows how much each team improved over the course of its season.

This year’s Ohio State Buckeyes have a few obvious parallels to Urban Meyer’s championship teams at Florida.

Back in the glory days of Legends and Leaders, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany made the ill-fated announcement that Michigan and Ohio State would not be in the same division. While it drew ire from fans reluctant to watch potential back-to-back editions of the league’s biggest rivalry, Delany found this setup necessary to keep competitive balance.

As Michigan football struggled behind former “little brother” Michigan State, the Michigan-Ohio State championship game never materialized. And while the setup meant some lost rivalries, it achieved its goal of competitive balance. Most years, the divisions were relatively balanced. Even in 2012, when postseason bans made for lopsided records in the Big Ten Championship, underdog Wisconsin won.

He might’ve started as Ohio State’s third-best quarterback, but over the past month, we’ve learned a lot about how good Jones is and just how entertaining he can be. After tearing up the formidable Wisconsin and Alabama defenses, which rank No. 18 and No. 3 in Football Outsiders’ F/+, he did the same to the Oregon defense, which came into the National Championship ranked No. 9 in the same metric.

The former three-star recruit from Cleveland finished with 242 passing yards on 10.5 yards per attempt against Oregon, and he proved to be a valuable asset for a physical running game that none of the Buckeyes’ last three high-profile opponents have come close to stopping.

At 6’5 and 250 pounds, Jones has prototype NFL quarterback size and then some. He runs with power, has a cannon of an arm, plays with poise, and is clearly beloved by teammates. But his small sample size would’ve likely scared some NFL GMs.

Even if he’d left early, he’d still be remembered as one of the season’s most entertaining players and one of Ohio State’s all-time greats.

Even though Ohio State had just beaten what was arguably the most talented team in the playoffs, the Buckeyes weren’t receiving a great deal of credit heading into the title game against the Ducks. Oregon was giving six and a half points on game day, and while Ohio State had its share of believers, the common perception was that Oregon was going to at last win a national title thanks to its Heisman-winning QB. If Ohio State won, it would be close.

The stage was not set for the dominant victory Ohio State put on.

College football fans spent decades telling the sport’s powers that a multiple-round championship would be good for the sport. Huh, it’s like the fans knew what they were talking about all along.

It certainly wasn’t the TV networks that held back progress, as ESPN had a solid idea all along of how huge the Playoff would be. The network gambled $7.3 billion for the first 12 years of Playoff broadcasts, and it’s clear to all that that wasn’t much of a gamble.

Monday’s national title game between Ohio State and Oregon (and the upcoming all-star games) not enough to satisfy your college football craving? Fear no more: you can watch the Buckeyes win their eighth championship in program history over and over and over again.

As of now, the ESPN family of networks only has one rebroadcast on their schedule. ESPNU will show the ESPN Voices broadcast (which was primarily ESPN personalities eating food) Friday, January 16 at 1:30 p.m. ET.

The Ohio State Buckeyes blasted the trash out of the Oregon Ducks, 42-20, in the first-ever College Football Playoff final on Monday night. The final polls have dutifully put OSU at No. 1, as they should, and the computers have mostly fallen in line as well.

Below is the Associated Press top 25, the historical gold standard of college football’s many human voting implements, along with the Coaches Poll, Football Outsiders’ F/+, and the Massey composite, which includes just about any rating you can possibly conceive of.

Geez LeBron, you’re going to make us get teary eyed.

In the waning seconds of Ohio State’s win against Oregon in the National Championship on Monday night, the Buckeyes opted to tack on one more touchdown to a game that was no longer in doubt, winning by a final score of 42-20, rather than 35-20.

OSU almost certainly could have taken a knee at the Oregon one-yard line and still won the game, and Urban Meyer’s decision to win by 22, rather than by 15, upset a lot of people. To them, this was running up the score. Forbes writer Mike Ozanian wrote that Meyer is a hypocrite for saying he believes in God and also trying to score a few extra points in a football game. Or something. The Oregonian’s Jason Quick said it showed a “lack of class” from Meyer.

The College Football Playoff is over and even though Im not so much a fan of the college game I have to admit I enjoyed it. I always say that every time you watch a football game you should learn something new and I literally relished my time as a student of student atheletes. .

So what did I learn? Was it that the metrosexual Oregon Ducks can wear all the glitty uniforms they want but there not real men until they get a ring? Was it that Ohio States Cardale Jones is 6’10 315 lb bulldozer of a man that Mack Brown thinks could make a excellent nose tackle someday? Was it that the NFL competiton committee should learn from the success of the college game and force NFL players to be fulltime students pursuing a advanced degree degree for as long as there in the NFL? Yes to all those things but also no.

1. Texas is SuperAmerica, or at least America Plus. For instance, JerryWorld’s got a lot of amenities. There is a car display on the third tier of one end zone sponsored by Ford, a display case for Mustangs, Fiestas, Fusions, and Focuses (Foci?) stacked in the rafters like a gigantic child’s playthings. There’s a pond with a fountain in the middle of it; an F-150 sits at the water’s edge, silently contemplating its own mortality. It begs for a hug, or at least an understanding pat on the fender.

2. Moët & Chandon champagne is available at the concession stand. It pairs surprisingly well with a barbecue sandwich.

Monday night’s national title game between Ohio State and Oregon pulled in an 18.5 overnight TV rating, the highest in ESPN history, the network announced in a release. It’s a 21 percent increase over last year’s game between Florida State and Auburn, the last ever BCS National Championship Game, which drew 15.3. ESPN’s previous highest rating was the 2011 BCS National Championship Game between Auburn and Oregon, drawing a 16.1 rating.

ESPN’s ‘Megacast,’ which offered different viewing options on the network’s other channels, combined for a 18.9 metered market average, per the release. That’s up 20 percent from last year’s MegaCast, which drew a 15.7 average.

Ohio State went out and won their eighth claimed national title in program history Monday, and it feels like the whole state is celebrating. Newspapers around Ohio (and the country) had some fun with the big win -- here are the best covers, via the Newseum, and the new Sports Illustrated cover.

All three have not only shown capability, but Heisman potential. Miller was one of the favorites before the season, Barrett was one of the favorites during the season, and Jones led the Buckeyes to a Big Ten title and playoff wins over Alabama and Oregon.

The trio gave some answers after the Buckeyes’ national title win Monday.