A Championship Repeat Is A Difficult Road

It has been nearly a month since the Buckeyes lifted the College Football Playoff trophy on the field in Atlanta as national champions and the moment will remain a fond memory for all involved.

But the work never ends and the quest to repeat is already underway at the WHAC for the Buckeyes, an Ohio State team that is going to look very different in 2025 than it looked in 2024.

It is difficult to repeat. Ohio State has never been able to repeat. The 1969 Buckeyes looked like they were going to be able to, until they didn’t. The 2015 Buckeyes were built to repeat but that too came up short.

Ohio State leads all teams with +600 odds to win the title for the 2025 season (meaning a bet of $100 would pay out a profit of $600) with Texas, Oregon, Georgia, and Penn State all right there.

How have the past 10 national champions fared in their next season? While the history has nothing to do with the present, it is an interesting case study in how difficult it is to repeat and what kind of uphill challenge the 2025 Buckeyes will face.

2015 – ohio state

This team was loaded, it had all the Super Sophomores (Part 2) returning, a three-time national championship coach in Urban Meyer and a schedule that was set up for a coronation of the returning national champions. Then a rainy November night in Columbus happened, a late field goal by the Spartans, and with just four teams making the playoffs, Ohio State was left out, despite throttling the Wolverines 42-13. The Buckeyes would go on to defeat Notre Dame in a bowl game, but it was a missed opportunity.

Make Playoffs: No

2016 – alabama

The Crimson Tide did almost everything right this season, running through the SEC and punctuating it with a 30-12 win over in-state rival Auburn. That proved to be more of a game than the SEC Championship game, where Nick Saban’s Tide mauled Florida, 54-16 and sent Bama back to the College Football Playoffs. The Washington Huskies were no match in a de facto home game in Atlanta setting up a championship game against Clemson in Tampa. If not for Deshaun Watson hitting Hunter Renfro for a touchdown with one second left, would the Bama legacy have been larger, and would Clemson have never broken through?

Make Playoffs: Yes

2017 – clemson

The Tigers would get tripped up during the regular season by Syracuse but that small blemish would not keep Clemson from taking the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoffs at the end of the season. Clemson solidified itself with a 38-3 win over Miami in the ACC Championship Game and the playoff committee had a tremendous sense of humor, setting up a rematch of the previous national championship game, in the semis, with Alabama. Bama was not messing around and took Clemson out 24-6.

Make Playoffs: Yes

2018 – alabama

Yes, we are talking about Alabama and Clemson again, it happened and there is no avoiding history. This Alabama team started the year No. 1 in both human polls and never gave that spot up until the postseason release. This Alabama team started the CFP rankings at No. 1 and never gave that spot up (CFP doesn’t re-release rankings after the playoffs). Georgia did push Bama in the SEC Championship game, with a seven-point margin, Oklahoma kept it respectable in the semis as well. But Clemson just lit Bama on fire, taking them down, 44-16.

Make Playoffs: Yes

2019 – clemson

This one is going to be a little painful for Ohio State fans, I apologize in advance. The Tigers ran through their regular season including a big non-league game against Texas A&M. The team was only tested once in the regular season, a 21-20 win over North Carolina. Clemson and Ohio State would be pitted against each other in the semis, and we all know what happened in that game. Clemson would move on and face a Joe Burrow-led LSU team, one of the best of the CFP era and the Bayou Bengals would win.

Make Playoffs: Yes

2020 – lsu

No Joe Burrow? Big problem. Yes, this was the ‘COVID Season’ but this LSU team took a major step backward from its national championship season. LSU was preseason ranked No. 5 and No. 6 according to the polls, but that only lasted for a few weeks as this team would end the year 5-5 in the 10-game SEC schedule.

Make Playoffs: No

2021 – alabama

This Bama team didn’t exactly skate through the regular season, beating Florida by just two points, losing to Texas A&M by three points along with a six-point win over LSU, a seven-point win over Arkansas and then of course the OT win over Auburn in the Iron Bowl, a game that Auburn lost more than Bama won. It was enough to get Bama into the CFP as the No. 1 seed after a win over UGA in the SEC title game. Alabama made quick work of Cincinnati before getting a rematch with Georgia. The Dawgs had the answer this time with 20 points in the 4^th quarter and UGA would win its first title since 1980.

Make Playoffs: Yes

2022 – Georgia

Here comes another painful one, so let’s get through it quickly. UGA made quick work of its regular season schedule despite a four-point win over Missouri and a lackluster 10-point win over Kentucky. Ohio State and UGA would meet in the Peach Bowl, Marvin Harrison would get knocked out of the game on an obvious targeting call (don’t at me, I don’t even care) and even with all of that, Ohio State had a chance at the final gun to win. UGA prevailed and then did awful things to TCU in the championship game.

Make Playoffs: Yes

2023 – Georgia

Sometimes it is a matter of when you lose that matters, nobody knows that better than Ohio State and I am sure there were a lot of happy people in Columbus when it happened to someone other than the Buckeyes. UGA only lost once this season, but it was in the SEC Championship game to Alabama and created the question of how you put a team that just lost to another team in ahead of them. The CFP committee couldn’t and put Bama in. Georgia reward was playing Florida State team that had lost its starting quarterback (and potential Heisman winner) and then everyone else opted out. It was ugly.

Make Playoffs: No

2024 – michigan

Fans of this team will point out that they beat Ohio State, the national champions of the season, and yes, they did. That was about the end of the high points as this Michigan team also went 8-5 on the season, show an anemic offense and remained in the news for the sign stealing allegations. The other shoe has yet to drop there, but the 2024 season overall was a disappointment.

Make Playoffs: No

Go to discussion...