Ohio State could have sweet revenge cost it thanks to Texas, Arch Manning in On3's CFP outlook

Getting to the College Football Playoff may as well be considered a failure for the Ohio State Buckeyes and Ryan Day.

It's an expectation, as the Buckeyes finally set the standard for excellence by winning a national championship to close the book this past season, reassuring the fanbase that Ryan Day is still the coach to lead his team for years to come.

However, this year's postseason outlook could spell disaster for the Buckeyes. Although On3's Ari Wasserman likes the defending champs to make a deep run, disaster plans to strike in the College Football Playoff semifinals.

The Buckeyes will again be seeded lower by falling short of a Big Ten title. Despite that, its playoff path before the semifinals seems painless. Wasserman has the Buckeyes knocking off the Boise State Broncos before running into an improved BYU Cougars team (which wins the Big 12) in this scenario to advance to a rematch against the Longhorns from last year's Cotton Bowl thriller. 

Only this time, though, the Buckeyes will fall short in the would-be Fiesta Bowl, Wasserman predicts.

"There have been a lot of familiar matchups in this CFP projection, both in terms of 2025 rematches and games from last year’s Playoff popping back up again," Wasserman wrote.

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Wasserman adds there will be few changes to the parity in the College Football Playoff. This could either be considered a good or bad thing, barring how fans view it

"But even though the CFP has expanded, there are still going to be usual suspects in the semifinals. So we get another Ohio State-Texas game, which is expected given the talent both teams possess. This year, though, Texas finally gets over the hump and knocks off the Buckeyes to advance to the title game."

Not even the highly anticipated sophomore season of Jeremiah Smith will be enough to repeat, arguably leaving more questions than answers in Columbus by season's end. It also shows that, just maybe, Arch Manning is worth the hype after all.

For now, only time will tell, and maybe a little luck.