Josh Pate’s latest College Football Playoff forecast includes Ohio State, but not the ending Buckeyes fans want to hear.
With training camp opening Thursday, the Buckeyes are officially underway, and the early conversation is already turning toward where the season might finish. Pate’s bracket puts Ohio State in the playoff field, and he sees a strong enough regular season for the Buckeyes to win the Big Ten and land at No. 2 in the country entering the postseason.
In Pate’s setup, Notre Dame grabs the top spot, Miami comes in at No. 3 and Georgia sits at No. 4.
From there, Ohio State opens playoff play against Lane Kiffin’s LSU Tigers, the No. 10 seed after LSU beats BYU in the first round. Pate has the Buckeyes handling LSU and advancing to the semifinals.
That’s where things go sideways for Ohio State. Pate’s prediction sends the Buckeyes into a matchup with Texas, a meeting that would echo 2024, when Ohio State saw Oregon in the regular season and then again in the Playoff. This time, though, the Longhorns get the upper hand and end the Buckeyes’ run.
The title game in Pate’s bracket would pit Texas against Notre Dame, setting up a matchup between two programs that rarely cross paths. In his version of events, the Irish win it all and climb back to the top of the sport.
For Ohio State, it would be another season that ends with disappointment, even with a semifinal berth. At a program this successful, that kind of finish still feels short of the standard.
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