National championship game on tap as Notre Dame and Ohio State close a long, strange football season

The curtain comes down Monday night on the longest, strangest college football season anyone has ever seen. About the only thing that feels normal about it are the teams playing for the title: Ohio State and Notre Dame.

Two of the country’s most storied programs are set to meet in a title game that wraps up the sport’s first 12-team playoff. The Jan. 20 finish is seven days later than the previous latest finish in history.

This marks Game No. 16 for both teams — a practically unheard of number for a sport that for decades wrapped things up after 11 or 12 games on or around New Year’s Day.

“I feel like we’ve been in the postseason since Week 3,” Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden said.

In most seasons, Week 3 would have marked the end of any championship hopes for the Fighting Irish, whose head coach, Marcus Freeman, could become the first African American coach to capture college football’s top prize.

That was the week after Freeman & Co. lost to small, little-known Northern Illinois. Had the playoff still been a four-team affair, as it had the previous 10 years, it was hard to see any path to a title with that kind of loss on the resume.

Now that 12 teams are in the mix — a product of years of back-room machinations primed by billions in TV money, some of which will soon go to the players themselves — things have changed. Notre Dame isn’t the only team grateful for that.

Ohio State’s 13-10 loss to rival Michigan on Thanksgiving weekend not only had the feel of a season wrecker, but had people calling for the job of Buckeyes coach Ryan Day.

It was Day’s fourth straight loss to the Wolverines, and this one came with Ohio State as a 20-point favorite and apparently cruising toward a shot at the Big Ten title. After the loss, about the only way the coach could save his job, or so the narrative went, was to win the national title.

And here we are.

“There are some great stories about what was said behind closed doors, some of the challenges that were raised” after the Michigan game, Day said. “But the only way those stories get told is if a banner gets raised.”

Inside the numbers

A few things to watch for in the game:

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard is a dual threat. He has passed for 19 touchdowns and rushed for 16. Ohio State’s top-ranked defense in both points and yards allowed might have to bring an extra defender close to the line to account for Leonard’s possibilities. … Notre Dame’s defense has forced 32 turnovers this season and scored a nation-best 151 points off of them. Winning that battle again figures to be key to the Irish’s chances of pulling off an upset. … Ohio State’s biggest playmaker, receiver Jeremiah Smith, got bottled up in the semifinals. He made one catch for three yards against Texas. Notre Dame’s defense has lost five starters to season-ending injuries. To win, the replacements will have to figure out a way to keep Smith quiet again.

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