Get ready, Oregon Ducks fans, because this is it. The 2025 Rose Bowl awaits Dan Lanning’s crew, but a clash between the No. 9 seed Tennessee Volunteers and the No. 8 seed Ohio State Buckeyes will decide who travels to Pasadena, Calif., for the New Year’s Day battle.
On paper, it’s a showdown between SEC and Big Ten heavyweights. But for Ducks fans, it’s more than that. This game is both a scouting opportunity and a cheat sheet to learn more about who you’re squaring up against on January 1.
Game Details
Date: Saturday, December 21, 2024
Time: 5 p.m. PT
TV: ABC, ESPN
Opening Moneyline: Ohio State -7
Current Moneyline: Ohio State -7.5, Tennessee +7.5
Who Should Oregon Prefer To Play?
Despite Ohio State being a 7.5-point favorite, there’s no decisive answer to who Oregon would rather play. That’s the “downside” to Oregon landing the No. 1 seed. The 8 vs. 9 matchup is a doozy without a consensus team Ducks fans should be pulling for.
Up front, the easy question is whether you want to see a rematch or a fresh faceoff. If you ask me, the rematch is better entertainment. A single point decided October’s game, and should we see Oregon vs. Ohio State in the Granddaddy Of Them All? That’s some college football scriptwriting that deserves a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay.
Of course, if you’re looking for a competitive advantage, Oregon likely prefers Tennessee. The Volunteers haven’t seen the Ducks in years, while the Buckeyes have on-field experience and takeaways against Oregon to bring into a January 1 rematch.
When confronted with facing one or the other, Dan Lanning put it the only way he could: “What an opportunity, right … if our path is a little bit tougher, kudos to us if we go through it and take care of business.”
Lanning has to say as much. Now is not the time to gripe about the CFP seeding process. So we’ll get a second voice in here as we turn to Ducks legend quarterback Joey Harrington to answer the question:
“Tennessee,” Harrington confidently declared on the Bleav In Oregon podcast. “I don’t like the idea of having to beat a team twice. I’ve seen too many crazy things. I just don’t like it.”
What to Watch For: Tennessee
During his podcast appearance, Harrington continued to explain why he’d rather see Tennessee.
“Tennessee’s strength is in the running game, and their strength is on defense,” he said. “If I’m going to say what type of team I want to play against, one that’s going to be balanced and explosive as Ohio State has shown it can be, or one that is going to rely heavily on the run game [like Tennessee], I think we saw that against Penn State.”
The Penn State comparison is a good one. They both lean on the run, but Penn State is more proven through the air. Keep an eye on how the Vols adjust to Ohio State’s offense and whether they find a balanced approach or go all-in on the run game.
What To Watch For: Ohio State
For Ducks fans, there is one obvious thing to watch for with the Buckeyes, as general as it may sound.
You need to pay attention to whether Ohio State looks like the same No. 2 team in the country that took you down to the wire back in October or if it seems like the inconsistent group that closed out the season.
Ohio State’s defense was the best in the country this season. It gave up just 241 yards per game and held opponents to a nation-best 10.9 points per outing. However, it scored just 10 points in its 13-10 loss to Michigan.
Every team has an off night, but doing so in the fashion Ohio State did was concerning for Buckeyes fans. This game needs to look, feel, and go better for them.
Whether or not it does will be telling for the Ducks should they face off again on January 1.
What To Watch For: Vols Fans
A bonus category to watch is how well Tennessee fans travel to and pack “The Horseshoe” Ohio Stadium.
As of this writing, StubHub reports that 42 percent of tickets sold on its platform are to Tennessee residents. Ohio State’s president is also suggesting that 30 percent of the stadium could be Vols fans, which would be wildly impressive considering “The Shoe” reserves about 3 percent of its tickets for visitors.
What does this mean? It means Vols fans are ready. And if they escape Ohio with a win, there’s no question the travel will continue straight down to Pasadena.
Ohio State fans will travel, too, of course. No question about it. But this first game on December 21, while a huge test for the Tennesse team, is also a litmus test for Tennessee fans. It would be wild to see how that passionate group travels against Oregon fans who (at least traditionally) don’t always travel as well as you’d expect.
Prediction
None of this has been a traditional game preview, per se, but I’ll leave you with this.
This game has the potential to be one of the best of the opening rounds—not a surprise considering the No. 8 vs. No. 9 placement. The play-to-play and possession-to-possession sequences will be good film study, but the overall themes of defense vs. run and who can bust out big plays at the right time will be most important.
Ohio State at -7.5 is too high for me. I do think the Buckeyes look more like themselves this week and come away with the win, setting up the rematch we all thought we might get in the Big Ten Championship. But I think this game is close. And nobody should be surprised if it comes down to an Ohio State crunch-time stop with the nation’s best defense clinching Buckeyes vs. Ducks Round 2 on New Year’s Day.
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