Game day is finally here. No. 9 Tennessee and No. 8 Ohio State in the first round of the College Football Playoff begin Saturday night at 8 Eastern Time on ABC and ESPN live from Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

Follow all the live updates before, during and after today’s game at The General’s Quarters

The winner of Tennessee (10-2) and Ohio State (10-2) advances to the quarterfinal round of the new 12-team College Football Playoff and faces No. 1 Oregon (13-0) in the Rose Bowl. . Pasadena, California, on New Year’s Day.

First quarter

Ohio State 7, Tennessee 0 (12:46): The Buckeyes struck first with a 37-yard touchdown pass Will Howard To Jeremiah Smith on the opening drive of the game. Ohio State converted a second-and-16 with a 21-yard pass on the previous play. Tennessee appeared to be off the field with a sack by Howard on third-and-2 early in the drive, but Bryson Eason Howard was asked to wear a face mask during the layoff. The touchdown drive covered 75 yards in five plays and lasted 2:14 minutes.

Ohio State 14, Tennessee 0 (8:09): Ohio State went 2-for-2 on touchdown drives early in the game, sandwiched around a three-and-out victory by Tennessee. Quinshon Judkins scored on a 1-yard run to give Ohio State a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter. Howard set up the score with a 40-yard pass to Emeka Egbuka two plays earlier. The scoring drive went 68 yards in five plays.

Ohio State 21, Tennessee 0 (3:27): Achieve 3-on-3 results on touchdown drives. This time TreVeon Henderson ran in from 29 yards out and extended the lead to three points before the game was even 12 minutes old. The drive went 58 yards in seven plays and gave the Buckeyes 191 yards on three touchdown drives. Tennessee, on the other hand, had a negative 6 yards on its first two possessions, both of which ended in threes.

No. 9 Tennessee and No. 8 Ohio State: Here’s how to watch

Start time: Saturday, 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time

TV: ABC/ESPN

Radio: WNML-FM 99.1 in Knoxville (Bob Kesling, Pat Ryan, Brent Hubbs, Jayson Swain). Vol Network’s radio show can be heard on local stations throughout the state of Tennessee.

SiriusXM: Cape. 82 | App: Cape. 82

The line: Ohio State -7.5

The four highest-ranked conference championships received byes to the quarterfinals: No. 1 Oregon, No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Boise State and No. 4 Arizona State.

Georgia will face No. 7 Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl after the Fighting Irish defeated No. 10 Indiana in their playoff opener on Friday night. Boise State will face the SMU-Penn State winner in the Fiesta Bowl and Arizona State will face the Clemson-Texas winner in the Peach Bowl.

The semifinals will be played on January 9th and 10th in the Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl. The 2025 National Championship Game will be played on Monday, January 20th at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

The bracket was set on December 8th, sending Tennessee to its first-ever game at Ohio State. It’s the Buckeyes’ first home game against an SEC team since 1988 – Ohio State beat LSU 36-33 on Sept. 24 of that season – and the first game the Vols have played at Ohio State.

How Tennessee and Ohio State got here

Tennessee unofficially punched its ticket to college football with a 36-23 win at Vanderbilt on Nov. 30, finishing the regular season with 10 wins for the second time in the last three years Josh Heupel.

Ohio State, meanwhile, ended the regular season with a 13-10 loss to rival Michigan at Ohio Stadium despite being a three-touchdown favorite. The loss cost the Buckeyes a berth in the Big Ten Championship Game and sent them into the first round of the playoffs.

“I’m looking forward to kicking things off with our guys,” Heupel said this week. “(We) understand the quality of the opponent we are preparing for, the atmosphere of the game itself.” Will be electric. And everyone in our program is excited to play this game.”