Ohio State will get its rematch with Oregon.

The Buckeyes jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and cruised to a 42-17 College Football Playoff win over Tennessee in a game that coach Ryan Day certainly relished after the Buckeyes’ Week 14 loss to Michigan will provide little relief. At least for a while.

Star freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith opened the scoring with a touchdown catch off a perfectly thrown pass from Will Howard.

Smith then put the game out of reach in the third quarter when he caught another dime from Howard, giving the Buckeyes a 28-10 lead.

Tennessee had crept back into the game in the second quarter, but Ohio State forced a punt as the Volunteers received the kickoff to open the third quarter. And immediately after Smith cut the lead back to three points with his second touchdown of the night, Tennessee punted again. Not long after the punt, Ohio State fans again rained mocking chants of “SEC” on the thousands of Volunteers fans who had traveled north from Knoxville for the game.

The Vols were overwhelmed early in the game. Ohio State had 133 yards on its first two drives of the game, while Tennessee had minus-11 yards. The Buckeyes’ first three drives all resulted in touchdowns as the OSU offense ran 17 plays for 201 yards. When the Volunteers reached positive values ​​again in the mileage column, the lead had become unassailable.

Why Ohio State was a preseason title favorite

The Buckeyes will face the Ducks in the Rose Bowl on January 1st. Oregon is the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff because it won the Big Ten and was the only team at the highest level of college football to make it through the playoffs undefeated season.

Ohio State was a favorite at Oregon’s position before the year as the Buckeyes made additions through high school recruiting (Smith), the transfer portal (RB Quinshon Judkins, DB Caleb Downs and others) and on the coaching staff (offensive coordinator Chip Kelly) . But the Buckeyes lost 32-31 at Oregon to start the season and fell 13-10 at home to Michigan in the final week of the regular season.

This loss to Michigan highlighted Ohio State’s offensive weakness. Despite all the talent the team has, it has fallen into an offensive funk far too often in 2024. Howard didn’t play his best against the Wolverines and Penn State, and against the Ducks he slipped just a few seconds late to prevent a game-winning field goal attempt as time expired.

However, Saturday night showed why the Buckeyes had this favorite status in the preseason. The offense was unstoppable early on and the defensive line stopped Tennessee’s offense, even as the Vols battled some significant injuries. SEC Offensive Player of the Year Dylan Sampson had a leg injury and receiver Squirrel White was also hobbled.

This significantly limited Tennessee’s offense. QB Nico Iamaleava was tasked with making mountains out of molehills and it worked out exactly as the outcome intended.

Another double-digit margin

Ohio State’s victory was its fourth win in four first-round games in this first year of the 12-team playoffs. The closest of the four games was Notre Dame’s 27-17 win over Indiana on Friday night, in a game that wasn’t all that close. The Irish led 27-3 in the fourth quarter before Indiana scored a pair of late touchdowns to cut the lead to two points.

All four wins also went to teams that hosted playoff games. The margins led to a lot of backlash on social media about how the playoff committee could have gotten different teams into the postseason. But if none of the four teams that lost on the road in the first round deserved to make it to the playoffs, who deserved it?

Indiana, SMU, Clemson and Tennessee all deservedly made the playoffs. All but the Tigers made it because of their regular-season success, and Clemson got into the game because of its ACC title game win. The only major conference team to miss the playoffs with two losses was Miami. And the Hurricanes suffered their second loss after blowing a 21-point lead in the final week of the regular season.

But the first weekend of the 12-team playoffs is far too early to make a judgment on the format. We all knew there weren’t twelve teams capable of winning the national title this season. In addition, there were frequent failures in the semifinals of the four-team playoffs.

And they were almost as bad as this weekend. The average margin of victory in the four first-round games this year was 19.25 points. In the ten years that four College Football Playoffs were held, the average margin of victory in semifinal games was 18.35 points.

The 12-team playoffs have added meaning to more regular season games and added more meaningful games to the postseason. This is a victory for college football fans, even if there will continue to be incessant and pointless debates about who should have made the playoffs until the Fiesta Bowl on December 31st.