Ohio State top pick for Big Ten & CFP title games
Vegas & ESPN set a preseason favorite
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COLUMBUS — The Big Ten preseason poll led with Penn State, but Vegas & ESPN have Ohio State as the early 2025 Big Ten front-runner.
It's been said that the defending national champion Buckeyes might actually have a better QB for 2025 in Alabama-transfer 5-star Julian Sayin, after losing Will Howard to the NFL Draft.
Combine that with a defense anchored by Caleb Downs and a freakish receiving corps led by Jeremiah Smith, and the potential is undeniable.
Vegas sees it. The computers see it. Fans? They’re buying in, too.
You hear it in the preseason hype and see it in the numbers, from recruiting stars to NIL spend. If you follow the money, the metrics, and the momentum of defending the national title: Ohio State isn’t just back, they might be even better.
Road to the natty
Even after losing 14 players to the Draft, four of them first-round picks, the Buckeyes opened as the betting favorite to win another national title, with Texas, Georgia, and others trailing close behind.
The irony is that 2024's two-loss Ohio State lapped last year's favorites in the playoffs. The 2025 season could be a role reversal with the Buckeyes being the hunted, if Game 1 goes their way when No. 1 Texas comes to town.
The motivation to prove you’re underrated is cleaner-burning fuel than the pressure of clinging to the No. 1 ranking through the regular-season gauntlet of college football.
Can Ohio State go beyond the Big Ten and repeat as national champs?
Big-time matchups
Ohio State's path to the promised land won't be smooth.
Circle Week 1 on your calendar: the Buckeyes open the season against Texas, a matchup that starts to shape the playoff bracket before September even hits.
Defending champ Ohio State will be everybody's measuring stick in those early weeks of the season.
Then there’s one of college football's best grudge matches, at Michigan to close out November.
The Wolverines have owned The Game recently, and they’re gunning for a fifth straight win against the Buckeyes.
For Ohio State coach Ryan Day and staff, this one’s personal after losing 13-10 in 2024 to an unranked Michigan team that finished the conference season at 5-4.
Regardless of either team's record by rivalry week of 2025, what's expected to be an improved Wolverines squad could potentially also be playing for postseason seeding and playoff momentum.
Time to deliver
Ohio State is projected to finish the regular season with 10+ conference wins. Elite, but not invincible.
The Big Ten’s new power structure, with Penn State and Oregon posing a clear challenge, means the most talented teams have little margin for error. Plus X-factors like Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, Iowa, and USC potentially clawing their way into the mix.
Still, Ohio State is the most complete team in the Big Ten, maybe in the country. They’re favored with good reason.
Day is looking for his fifth playoff season as Ohio State Head Coach (2019, '20, '22, '24). The Buckeyes have five-star weapons at every level.
And they have a chip on their shoulder the size of Ohio.
The only thing left now? Deliver.
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