CFP National Championship history: Revisiting every national championship game in CFP era
The College Football Playoff national championship is tonight, and Ohio State and Notre Dame are looking to add to a growing legacy of CFP finals. There have been some great games and some absolute snoozers— fans are hoping for the former, but worried we’ll see the latter.
It’s no secret that the Buckeyes are a huge favorite in this one, but Notre Dame has the defense to make this one interesting. We’ve seen some purported mismatches end in wire-to-wire blowouts, and some end in memorable nail-biters and instant classics.
Let’s revisit the CFP finals of yesteryear as we anticipate tonight’s game.
2014 CFP National Championship: Ohio State vs Oregon
The inaugural season of the college football playoff was memorable for a lot of reasons, but the national championship game was not one of them. The Buckeyes were a buzzsaw headed into this one, and they didn’t meet much resistance against the Ducks.
Make no mistake: this Oregon squad was no pushover. They boasted the Heisman-winning Marcus Mariota at QB and defensive stalwarts like Deforest Buckner. Even so, this was not much of a competition.
The Buckeyes were down to their third-string QB in Cardale Jones, but he didn’t have to do a whole heck of a lot with all the talent that was around him. Just throw it long to guys like Devin Smith and Michael Thomas and watch them make plays.
The biggest weapon the Buckeyes bore was Ezekiel Elliott, however. DE Joey Bosa was a game changer, but Elliott was the talk of the nation. Ohio State won this one 42-20.