Defending national champion Ohio State to 3rd straight Cotton Bowl, will face Miami or Texas A&M

By Canadian Press on December 7, 2025.

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Defending national champion Ohio State is going to the Cotton Bowl for the third season in a row, this time for a College Football Playoff quarterfinal game on New Year’s Eve against Miami or Texas A&M.

The Big Ten runner-up and third-ranked Buckeyes (12-1) won their CFP semifinal last January at the Cotton Bowl over Texas, then went on to beat Notre Dame for the national championship.

Seventh-ranked Texas A&M (11-1) from the Southeastern Conference and No. 10 Miami (10-2), the only playoff team from the Atlantic Coast Conference, got at-large playoff berths after missing out on their conference championship games. Both make their CFP debut when they play in College Station on Dec. 20, the first of three CFP games that day.

Miami beat Notre Dame 27-24 in the season opener back on Aug. 31, and got in the playoff field after jumping ahead of the Fighting Irish in the final CFP rankings Sunday.

“Just waiting around, a little bit of anxiety, but overall we felt really confident,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said on ESPN. “We felt confident because as long as everybody just kind of abided by the criteria that we would be in a good place, and thankfully that was the case.”

The Hurricanes have a four-game winning streak since an overtime loss Nov. 1 at SMU, a playoff team last season. Miami and the Mustangs were part of a five-way tie for second place in the ACC standings with two league losses each. Duke, with five losses overall, won the tiebreaker, beat Virginia in the league championship game and got left out of the playoff.

Ohio State still got a first-round playoff bye after its 13-10 loss to undefeated Indiana in the Big Ten championship game. The Hoosiers had been No. 2 in the penultimate CFP rankings, but passed the previously top-ranked Buckeyes.

“We’re disappointed, but you know, we’re not gonna sit around and feel sorry for ourselves,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day told ESPN. “We’ve got to get back to work. We’re excited about going down to the Cotton Bowl and, you know, seeing what happens with this game.”

When Ohio State lost 14-3 to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl at the end of the 2023 season, it wasn’t a playoff game. The Buckeyes were without two-time AP All-America receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. receiver, who opted out of the game before declaring for the NFL draft, and starting quarterback Kyle McCord after his departure for Syracuse.

The Cotton Bowl is played at AT&T Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and where the Buckeyes won the first national championship in the CFP format, then a four-team bracket at the end of the 2014 season. Ohio State’s other Cotton Bowl appearances were wins over Southern California at the end of the 2017 season, and a 28-12 win over Texas A&M on New Year’s Day 1987.

The Aggies, who would remain in their home state for a second-round game if they win, won their first 11 games this season before losing at Texas in the regular-season finale. They are one of five SEC teams in the 12-team playoff bracket.

Second-year Texas A&M coach Mike Elko was Duke’s head coach for two seasons, before returning to the Aggies as their head coach. His Blue Devils won 45-21 at Miami in 2022.

“First of all, just excitement to get playoff football in College Station, to know that we’re hosting a game in Kyle Field,” Elko said. “Once we figured out we were in and we were hosting it, at that point it was kind of like we’ll play whoever they’re gonna bring here. Obviously a ton of respect for this Miami program. … Extremely talented football team and I’m sure they’ll be fired up to prove that they belong to be in with all the rhetoric around it and so you know we’ll have our hands full in a couple weeks, but it’ll be exciting to host a game.”

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Stephen Hawkins, The Associated Press

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