Dating back to the start of the 2021 season, Ohio State has been favored to win every football game it has played.
The Buckeyes have been betting favorites to win all of their last 25 games, and were a double-digit favorite entering 22 of them – their first 11 regular-season games both last year and this year. The only games in the past two seasons in which oddsmakers have projected Ohio State’s opponent would even keep the game within single digits were each year’s Michigan game – both of which the Buckeyes lost by double digits – and last year’s three-point Rose Bowl win over Utah.
Ohio State’s streak of being favored for every game is poised to end in the Peach Bowl, as Georgia is currently favored to beat the Buckeyes by 6.5 points. That’s indicative of how good the undefeated, No. 1-seeded Bulldogs have been this year – and how beatable the Buckeyes looked the last time they took the field in their 45-23 loss to the Wolverines.
In recent history, though, the Buckeyes have delivered some of their best performances in games they were underdogs. Being an underdog has seemingly provided an emotional jolt to the Buckeyes that has pushed them to perform at their best in the past, and Ryan Day hopes that will be the case once again on New Year’s Eve.
“Certainly a lot of people counted us out and here we are,” Day said last Sunday after the Buckeyes found out they would be the No. 4 seed in this year’s CFP. “So I kind of like being in this role, but now we've got to go do something with it.”
Since the start of the 2012 season, Ohio State has been an underdog just 10 times and has gone 8-2 in those games. Those games include the only other time Ohio State was the No. 4 seed in the College Football Playoff, which came in the inaugural CFP in 2014, when the Buckeyes upset Alabama in the semifinals and Oregon in the national championship game. Eight years later, Ohio State will look to conjure up similar magic and beat a top-seeded SEC power in the semifinals again.
| Year | Game | Opponent | Line | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME | ALABAMA | +9.5 | ALABAMA 52, OHIO STATE 24 |
| 2020 | COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF SEMIFINAL | CLEMSON | +7 | OHIO STATE 49, CLEMSON 28 |
| 2019 | COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF SEMIFINAL | CLEMSON | +2.5 | CLEMSON 29, OHIO STATE 23 |
| 2018 | REGULAR SEASON | MICHIGAN | +3.5 | OHIO STATE 62, MICHIGAN 39 |
| 2014 | NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME | OREGON | +6 | OHIO STATE 42, OREGON 20 |
| 2014 | COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF SEMIFINAL | ALABAMA | +7.5 | OHIO STATE 42, ALABAMA 35 |
| 2014 | BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP GAME | WISCONSIN | +4 | OHIO STATE 59, WISCONSIN 0 |
| 2014 | REGULAR SEASON | MICHIGAN STATE | +3.5 | OHIO STATE 49, MICHIGAN STATE 37 |
| 2012 | REGULAR SEASON | WISCONSIN | +1 | OHIO STATE 21, WISCONSIN 14 |
| 2012 | REGULAR SEASON | MICHIGAN STATE | +2 | OHIO STATE 17, MICHIGAN STATE 16 |
| Lines via Covers.com | ||||
After going 7-0 as an underdog in Urban Meyer’s seven years as head coach, Ohio State has gone just 1-2 in three games as an underdog under Ryan Day, with losses to Clemson in the 2019 College Football Playoff semifinals and to Alabama in the 2020 national championship game. But the Buckeyes delivered perhaps their first performance of Day’s tenure when they beat Clemson 49-28 as a seven-point underdog in the 2020 CFP semifinals, and Day believes that game can serve as a blueprint for the Buckeyes in this year’s semifinals.
“I think we did a really good job in (2020) of getting ready to play in that Clemson game,” Day said. “We'll use that same formula as we prepare for this game.”
One key difference between the upcoming game against Georgia and the last 10 games in which the Buckeyes were underdogs is that Ohio State is entering the Peach Bowl coming off of a loss. Going into all of the previous 10 games, Ohio State was an underdog despite having won at least three straight games, giving the Buckeyes momentum and reason to feel slighted. This time around, the Buckeyes will be coming directly off of a devastating loss, which could make it easier for doubt to creep into their minds if they don’t get off to a fast start.
What the underdog role could help Ohio State do, though, is play more freely. The Buckeyes entered the Michigan game with immense pressure to beat their rivals after losing the year before, and that seemingly led to tight and tentative play. Knowing most people don’t expect them to beat Georgia could lead Ohio State to play with more of a nothing-to-lose mindset against the Bulldogs, and that could potentially unlock the aggressive style of play that propelled the Buckeyes to beat Clemson two years ago but has too often gone missing in big games since.
“There'll be no fear of failure. We’re gonna go play as hard as we possibly can and be aggressive,” Day said. “That's the way that we've done it here. But when it almost all gets taken away from you, it's a stark reminder that you got to make sure that's the way you're playing your game and that's the way that we're going to attack this month.”
