Notre Dame fans might still be smarting over the outcome of the 2025 College Football Playoff title game, but it’s time to look to 2026. At least that’s how ESPN sees it.
The Irish are slotted as the seventh seed and host of a first-round game, but the bigger story in this scenario is their first opponent would be LSU. What’s more, this projection has the Irish beating the Tigers in a game that Brian Kelly surely never would live down.
Alas, this projection also has Penn State getting revenge on the Irish in the Rose Bowl en route to winning the national title. At least there’s no shame in losing to the last team standing:
Welcome to college football, where predictions never take time off.
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With Jim Knowles leaving Ohio State for Penn State, Oregon co-DC Chris Hampton is a candidate to replace him in Columbus.
Players aren’t the only ones coming and going this college football offseason. Coaches are hitting the road left and right, and one of, if not the biggest, hiring splashes this offseason just occurred: Ohio State Buckeyes defensive coordinator Jim Knowles left Columbus to join the Penn State Nittany Lions for the same position in Happy Valley.
With an unexpected opening on the Ohio State coaching staff, Oregon co-defensive coordinator Chris Hampton is being suggested as a prime candidate for the job.
Sources told On3.com ($) that last year, Hampton received interest from five schools across the ACC and SEC to become a top defensive coordinator. He turned down those potential jobs and returned to Eugene for the 2025 season. The Ducks went on to have a stellar defensive year, ranking No. 15 in the nation in yards allowed per game, with 315.9.
Hiring an Oregon coach away from the Ducks wouldn’t be anything new for the Buckeyes as head coach Ryan Day was able to hire Carlos Locklyn a year ago as their running backs coach, replacing Tony Alford, who in turn left Columbus to go to Michigan.
Hampton might be a candidate for Ohio State, but he is far from being the only possible coach to replace Knowles. Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker, Arkansas DC Travis Williams and Ohio State safeties coach Matt Guerrieri are thought to be up for the job as well.
Ducks finish in upper portion of the US LBM Coaches poll despite Rose Bowl loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes to close the year.
The Oregon Ducks football team’s Rose Bowl loss to Ohio State will sting for a bit, but that shouldn’t diminish what was a great regular season.
Oregon finished as the Big Ten champions and with just that one loss, the Ducks finished the 2024 season ranked No. 4 in the country in the last US LBM USA TODAY Coaches poll of the season.. The only teams ahead of them are the two national championship participants, Ohio State and Notre Dame as well as Texas.
As it turns out, the Big Ten was the strongest conference in the nation with the Buckeyes winning it all, Oregon at No. 4 and Penn State at No. 5. Indiana finished No. 10 and Illinois at No. 16.
The Ducks’ 2024 success doesn’t seem to be fleeting as Oregon as named as one of the top contenders to win the national championship in 2025. But that’s next season. This year is still foremost on most of the Duck fans’ mind and one can only think of what could have been, especially since the Buckeyes won it all.
There will still be plenty of happy memories associated with this season, however. The win over Ohio State at Autzen Stadium has to be No. 1 on most lists.
Notre Dame has played in 44 bowl games and counting all-time, a number that might seem low considering they’ve been playing football for over 130 years. However, Notre Dame didn’t play in bowl games out of their belief in amateurism for over 40 years which means for a lot fewer bowl appearances than several other blue-blood programs.
There have been great triumphs and incredible heartbreakers both over those 44 games.
Legends were made, thrilling wins were had, and heartbreaking losses also occurred.
Check out the game-by-game history of Notre Dame in postseason bowl games below.
More Bowl Game History from the College Wire Network:
USC football might not have been playing in the Rose Bowl this year, but the Trojans were still represented at the Grandaddy of Them All. During Wednesday’s game between Ohio State and Oregon, the 2024 Rose Bowl Hall of Fame class was honored on the field. That class included legendary USC running back Reggie Bush.
Bush appeared in two Rose Bowls during his three seasons at USC. In the 2004 game against Michigan, Bush rushed for 83 yards in a 28-14 victory that gave the Trojans the national championship. Two years later against Texas, he tallied 177 all-purpose yards and a touchdown in a 41-38 loss to Texas.
Joining Bush in this year’s Hall of Fame class were former Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio and former Oregon running back LaMichael James.
Bush is the 28th Trojan to be inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2023.
USC’s 34 Rose Bowl appearances and 25 victories are by far the most of any school. However, after playing in five Rose Bowls in six years between 2004 and 2009, the Trojans have appeared in the game just once in the past 16 years.
As the kids say, Jeremiah Smith is a cheat code. Just throw the ball in his general vicinity and there’s a good chance he’s going to come down with the catch.
Smith has been breaking records all season at Ohio State and he added his name to the record books twice more after an outstanding Rose Bowl performance. On the game, the freshman phenom pulled in seven receptions for 187 yards and two scores. Those totals would put Smith as the record holder in two more categories.
First, with his 187 receiving yards, Smith breaks another record held by Cris Carter, most receiving yards in a single game by a freshman. Carter held the record with 172 yards receiving in the 1985 Rose Bowl, a game the Buckeyes would lose to USC 20-17.
Smith wasn’t done etching his name in the record books just yet. He would also move to the top of the list in Big Ten history with the most touchdown receptions by a freshman. He broke the record with his first score and padded the number with the second giving him 14 on the year. The previous record was 12 set by Rondale Moore of Purdue in 2018.
In addition to the aforementioned records, Smith also holds the Ohio State freshman receiving records for yards in a season (1,224), receptions (70), and receiving touchdowns in a season (14) with the possibility of adding to those numbers with at least one more game to play.
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While I agree that the playoff seeding system, I am here to make the counter argument that Trojans fans do not need to feel particularly bad for the Ducks. In fact, Oregon’s playoff bracket draw was actually justice 13 years in the making.
Let me take you back to 2011. Oregon and Stanford finished tied for first in the Pac-12 at 8-1 in conference play. At the time, however, the conference utilized a divisional format to determine its conference title game participants. Because the Ducks had beaten the Cardinal head-to-head, Oregon won the Pac-12 North and advanced to the first ever Pac-12 Championship Game, while an 11-win Stanford team stayed at home the first weekend in December.
The champion of the Pac-12 South that year was 10-2 USC, who had beaten Oregon in Eugene in November. However, due to NCAA sanctions, the Trojans were ineligible for postseason play that season. Thus, the Ducks’ title game opponent was instead a 6-6 UCLA team that had fired its head coach the week prior to the game.
The Pac-12 had three double-digit win teams in 2011, and a fourth that won eight games. But because of a bracketing fluke, Oregon drew a 6-6 team in the conference title game, essentially handing them a free ticket to the Rose Bowl.
13 years later, the Ducks returned to Pasadena on the other side of the coin. Ironically, their opponent this time was an Ohio State program that had fallen victim to a similar NCAA injustice of a bygone era as one that rendered USC ineligible for the postseason in 2011.
In 2012, Ohio State finished the regular season 12-0 under first-year head coach Urban Meyer. However, due to NCAA sanctions regarding players receiving impermissible benefits (which, similar to USC’s Reggie Bush scandal, wouldn’t even cause anyone to bat an eye if it happened today), the Buckeyes were ineligible for postseason play. Hence, 10-2 Nebraska played 7-5 Wisconsin for the Big Ten title, while an Alabama team with a loss got to play for a national title instead.
In 2024, the Buckeyes faced no such sanctions. Nor did they face much opposition from the Ducks, who fell behind 34-0 in the second quarter, effectively rendering the game over before halftime.
It was a tough draw for Oregon, whose reward for finishing ranked No. 1 in the final CFP rankings was a date with arguably the most talented team in the country. But USC fans who remember what happened in 2011 need not feel any sympathy for their rivals from the north.
Photo Gallery: Ducks let golden opportunity for a national championship slip through in Pasadena.
The Oregon Ducks football team walked into the Rose Bowl as the No. 1 ranked and No. 1 seeded team in the College Football Playoff and when they walked out of the Rose Bowl, the season was over.
A disastrous first half that saw Ohio State claim a 34-0 lead and then eventually defeat the Ducks 41-21. The Buckeyes move on to the semifinals where Texas awaits them in the Cotton Bowl.
Oregon had an incredible regular season where they went 12-0 and then a Big Ten championship with a win over Penn State. But three weeks off, a hot Ohio State team and injuries to key players was just too much to overcome for Oregon who now is suddenly staring the offseason in the face.
It’s too soon to look back on what was a historic 2024 season where the Ducks entered the Big Ten Conference and not only showed they belonged but could be a great team for years to come. The new kids on the block are here to stay and this was just the first of possibly many conference titles.
Here are the best photos from a somber Rose Bowl appearance for the Ducks.
Following the theme of much of this College Football Playoff (well, besides the Peach Bowl), the Rose Bowl was yet another blowout with Ohio State knocking off top-seeded Oregon. But given that these second-round playoff games are bowl games, teams get to celebrate the win as they would for a standalone bowl game.
There’s a stage, trophy presentation and everything.
Yet, for Ohio State quarterback Will Howard, he had to watch the festivities unfold from the stairs in the back.
As the Buckeyes were celebrating the 41-21 win on stage, Howard tried to get up there to join his teammates. We’d see in a video, though, that Howard wasn’t allowed up there. It was nothing personal against the Buckeyes quarterback — just that the team had reached the stage’s weight capacity.
Of course, an easy solution would have been for one player to switch spots with Howard and let him get up there. Voices off camera tried to explain to the official that this was the team’s quarterback, but Howard had to wait his turn.
He did eventually get on stage, but the Rose Bowl should look into some equipment that can support a team of literal football players. Just a thought.
Ohio State will head to Arlington to take on Texas in the semifinal.
This kind of College Football Playoff collapse from the undisputed No. 1 team was shocking.
PASADENA, Calif. — The final seconds were so anticlimactic it almost didn’t feel like a proper Rose Bowl. Ohio State fans roared through a stadium-wide cheer of “O-H-I-O” as Oregon fans trickled out in a deflated exodus.
“Go back to Eugene!” Buckeyes cornerback Jermaine Mathews Jr. shouted at no one in particular as the clock counted down to No. 8 seed Ohio State’s commanding 41-21 victory Wednesday in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals game against the top-seeded Ducks.
A forceful victory and a mind-boggling collapse.
Of all the College Football Playoff teams that could have been upset, dominated or straight-up embarrassed off the field, absolutely no one predicted Oregon would be in the running for the most stunning collapse of the season. No one.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DETsfniOk6B/
Yet the Ducks hobbled out of the Rose Bowl dripping in disappointment and irony. No one figured this Oregon team would ever be on the losing end of a blowout. Except maybe Ohio State.
College football fans love a good debate. Buttressed by logic and facts or complete meritless nonsense, they’ll materialize a debate out of thin air if they have to. And especially if it’s about the playoff.
But one playoff detail that never seemed up for debate for much of the regular season was Oregon’s ranking and high esteem, further enhanced by a Big Ten championship in the school’s first season in the 18-team conference.
No one debated the Ducks as the No. 1 team this year, especially as every other national title contender had blunders and at least one loss. No one questioned whether they’d get the playoff committee’s top seed, and no one tried to mitigate their perfect 13-0 record going into the postseason. Oregon was so clearly the best and most complete team from August to December, with an offense led by a Heisman Trophy contender and one of the most formidable defenses in the country.
So when Ohio State absolutely boat-raced the Ducks off the field in the playoff quarterfinals, after the shock waned, you’ve got to wonder: What the hell happened, Oregon?
“They clicked tonight and we didn’t,” Ducks coach Dan Lanning said. “When you play a great team like Ohio State, you can’t not be clicking on all cylinders, and they were.”
Jan 1, 2025; Pasadena, CA, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes defensive end JT Tuimoloau (44) reacts in the first half against the Oregon Ducks in the 2025 Rose Bowl college football quarterfinal game at Rose Bowl Stadium. (Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)
Arizona State unexpectedly took Texas to two overtimes before falling Wednesday. Group of Five rep Boise State put up a fight before losing to Penn State on New Year’s Eve. Both squads should be proud.
But barely a week after fans, coaches and ESPN personalities lamented the top seeds blowing out the lower seeds at home, here was Oregon, the undisputed No. 1 seed, falling at a neutral site in the same time zone as Eugene.
The Ducks didn’t have the easiest draw in the playoff bracket or path to the national championship, and everyone knew there was a good chance for an all-Big Ten Rose Bowl and a rematch from earlier this season.
I suspect most people anticipated a heated contest more closely resembling October’s one-point Oregon home win. Maybe it wouldn’t be *that* close, maybe it wouldn’t come down to the final drive. But you’re lying if you thought the Buckeyes would outscore Oregon, 34-8, in the first half on their way to a convincing victory.
To be fair, Ohio State bounced back from its unfathomable regular-season finale loss to Michigan and crushed Tennessee in the first round of the CFP. Things were clicking again, as its offense began to spread the ball around its $20 million roster and actually throw to its NFL-bound receiving corps.
But Lanning’s Ducks should have been ready. They had weeks to build a general game plan, 11 days to prepare for a team they already beat this season and plenty of weapons on both sides of the ball.
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 01: Noah Whittington #6 of the Oregon Ducks is hit by JT Tuimoloau #44 and Jack Sawyer #33 of the Ohio State Buckeyes in the second quarter during the Rose Bowl Game Presented by Prudential at Rose Bowl Stadium on January 01, 2025 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
“I just don’t think we had a good enough plan as coaches tonight, and we have to find ways to prepare ourselves for these moments better,” Lanning said.
“We’ve got to be able to adjust a little bit faster,” he added. “We didn’t adjust fast enough.”
But this kind of collapse from the undisputed No. 1 team in the regular season was shocking. Inexplicable. Oregon didn’t wilt and instead fought back in the second half, but overcoming a 34-point deficit is unsurmountable for most teams.
Maybe the Ducks resent not getting an on-campus game, a decidedly awesome feature of the expanded playoff. Maybe the rest hurt them more than it helped, or they looked too far ahead. Maybe they really did have the worst draw in the bracket and earned the right to have a big gripe against the playoff committee. Maybe Ohio State was simply better or learned from October mistakes.
Any validity to Oregon’s complaints about its draw and the reward for being No. 1 evaporated after the Rose Bowl’s first 30 minutes. The games are the ultimate deciders, and as sports continually remind us, sometimes the best regular-season team doesn’t win it all.
“We believe that when we’re executing at a high level that we can play with anybody in the country,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “We knew we had to be at our best today.”
Ohio State looked better than it has all season, especially against an inarguably strong opponent, and freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith had a record-breaking night. The Buckeyes were playing at a different elevation than the Ducks. They jumped out to a huge lead and only relinquished a touch of it.
College football is weird, the playoff amplifies that and top-seeded Oregon was the latest to fall.
