CFP Finale: Ohio State’s Redemption vs. Notre Dame’s Independence

The College Football Playoff national championship game is set to conclude strong postseason runs for Ohio State, Notre Dame, and ESPN.

Redemption Arch

Ohio State is favored to beat Notre Dame by more than a touchdown, which would give head coach Ryan Day his first title after his job status in Columbus was anything but certain just over a month ago. 

The Buckeyes failed to reach the Big Ten championship game after losing to rival Michigan as three-touchdown home favorites in November. At that point, Day’s $37 million buyout became a major talking point.

But three CFP wins later, Day is now 60 minutes away from possibly quieting the naysayers and clearing up his once murky future. This is Day’s sixth season at Ohio State, having signed a contract extension in 2022 that sees him earn a salary of more than $10 million.

Striking Gold

For Notre Dame, this CFP run has continued to validate the school’s independent status.

The recent wave of realignment raised questions about the Fighting Irish bucking tradition and joining a conference. Notre Dame can’t earn a first-round bye in the current structure of the CFP (even if they were undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the nation) which reserves those slots for conference championship game winners. 

And under third-year head coach Marcus Freeman (who received a contract extension in December), Notre Dame rallied from an embarrassing—and expensive—home loss to Northern Illinois in September, but now has a chance to upset Ohio State to win its first national championship since 1988.

Watch Party

The Ohio State-Notre Dame matchup should draw a big audience for ESPN, which typically doesn’t get to broadcast the best games involving these two schools. 

ESPN’s bread and butter is the SEC, which delivered big time this regular season, and the network also has ACC and some Big 12 rights. Ohio State’s biggest matchups usually end up on Fox, and Notre Dame’s on NBC.

But ESPN has the CFP’s media rights locked up through 2031 and benefits from postseason matchups regardless of conference affiliation. 

While viewership of the semifinals was down compared to last year, each round has drawn more viewers than the previous one, with all 10 CFP games thus far averaging nearly 15 million viewers. Last year’s Michigan-Washington national championship game drew 25 million viewers.