Before the College Football Playoff began, Ohio State was dead in the water. Ryan Day was all but fired after the Buckeyes lost a fourth straight game to the Michigan Wolverines, and they were consistently everybody’s favorite pick to be the one home team to suffer an upset loss in the first round against Tennessee.
Instead, Ohio State beat the Vols 42-17. They then blew out the top-ranked and undefeated Oregon Ducks 41-21 in the Rose Bowl before knocking out the Texas Longhorns 28-14 in the Cotton Bowl and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 34-23 in the national championship game. Yes, they won all four games by double digits.
How could this turnaround come from a team that lost at home 13-10 to the five-loss Michigan Wolverines to close out the regular season? Well, it may have come down to that Tennessee…and those Vol fans determined to humiliate OSU in their own stadium.
If you remember, Tennessee organized a takeover of The Horseshoe. It made sense. Buckeye fans were way down on Ryan Day after that Michigan loss and wanted him gone, and Vol Nation was more than happy to snatch up those tickets. It worked too, as they had a ton of fans in Columbus.
Based on data at the time, more tickets on resale markets were going to Vol fans than OSU fans. OSU AD Ross Bjork asked fans to stop selling their tickets to Tennessee fans. UT’s presence in Columbus was noted by pundits everywhere on the day of the game, and they may have made up 41 percent of the stadium. It backfired spectacularly.
What Ohio State lost out on in a home fan base, they made up for with their motivation. That seemed to only fuel the fire of a program determined to save Day’s job and gain back the respect it lost from that Michigan game. Make no mistake, Tennessee fans humiliating OSU were part of it. Kirk Herbstreit even said as much in the title game.
None of this is to suggest Tennessee would have won without its fans humiliating OSU. Heck, it’s still likely OSU captures the national title. This team steamrolled everybody in its path, largely thanks to superb game planning, mostly by Chip Kelly. All that likely would have happened is it may have had a couple of closer games.
Still, Vol fans didn’t help the matter. This may be the first time in the history of college football that neutralizing home field advantage had the reverse effect against the team that did it. Ohio State was clearly the healthiest and most talented team in the CFP. They just needed the right triggers, and it looks like Tennessee provided.
