In the immediate aftermath of Jack Sawyer’s stunning scoop and score during the national semifinals of last year’s College Football Playoff, as half the crowd at AT&T Stadium screamed loudly enough to shake the television cameras and the other half stood frozen in disbelief, mouths collectively agape, it was difficult to parse through all the layers of deeper-seated meaning crammed into one unforgettable play.
Jack Sawyer #33 of Ohio State scores a touchdown after recovering a fumble in the fourth quarter against Texas during the Goodyear Cotton Bowl. (Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
On the surface, Sawyer had single-handedly manufactured the clinching touchdown in an enthralling victory over Texas that propelled Ohio State to the national championship game. His 83-yard fumble return extended the Buckeyes’ lead to double digits with 2:29 remaining at a juncture when the Longhorns were deep in the red zone and threatening to level the score.
But there was so much more to that sequence, and to that game, that would help contextualize the enormity of such a high-stakes moment between Ohio State and Texas — two programs that are unquestionably among the sport’s biggest, richest and most recognizable brands, even though they’d combined to capture just a single national title in the preceding 20 years.
For the Longhorns to maintain their blue-blood status despite only winning one championship since 1970 — thanks, Vince Young — speaks to how enmeshed Texas really is in the double helix of college football lore. The Buckeyes, meanwhile, could at least claim two national titles in the 21st century going into that January evening, but none since 2014.
“We’ve been close,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said at SEC Media Days this summer. “We’ve been there. We’ve been knocking on the door [for] the final two years. However to go do this [and win it all], we have to take it one step at a time as we embark on the summit that we’re in search of. And that is going to take nice self-discipline.”
Texas’ quarterback that fateful night time in opposition to Ohio State was none aside from Quinn Ewers, a former No. 1 total recruit within the nation who started his profession with the Buckeyes earlier than transferring again house, swiftly elevating the Longhorns to consecutive CFP appearances for the primary time in class historical past. Sawyer, in the meantime, was a former five-star prospect in his personal proper and a participant who, on Feb. 3, 2019, turned the primary excessive schooler to decide to newly promoted head coach Ryan Day, igniting an otherworldly recruiting run for the Buckeyes that has since produced six consecutive lessons ranked among the many prime 5 nationally. That Ewers and Sawyer had beforehand been roommates at Ohio State, albeit comparatively briefly, supplied yet one more scrumptious plot twist.
For Texas and Ohio State to have met with a lot pomp and circumstance and expertise seven months in the past solely to climb atop the rankings once more in 2025, when they’re Nos. 1 and three, respectively, within the preseason AP ballot and Nos. 1 and a pair of, respectively, within the coaches ballot, solely reinforces the speculation that these two colleges, maybe greater than any others, are uniquely positioned for long-term success on this new period of school soccer. An argument might be made that Saturday’s mouthwatering season opener at Ohio Stadium, the place the Buckeyes will host the Longhorns within the premier recreation of Week 1 (midday ET on FOX and the FOX Sports activities app), is a matchup between the game’s present and future preeminent powers.
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“For those who take a look at final yr’s recreation,” Sarkisian mentioned at a information convention earlier this week, “26 gamers received drafted off the 2 groups into the NFL. For those who embrace free brokers, 32 gamers that had been enjoying in that recreation a yr in the past are actually enjoying within the NFL. And the truth that each groups are coming again as 1 and a pair of within the nation [in the coaches poll], I believe speaks volumes to the standard of packages that each of us have, fairly frankly.”
As soon as perennial contenders within the Massive 12, a convention Texas seemingly co-chaired with rival Oklahoma, the Longhorns stormed the SEC final fall with a dream-like debut that flashed sufficient teaching guile, spending energy and depth to ship shock waves of endurance throughout the league. And the Buckeyes, lengthy thought of the category of the Massive Ten on the shoulders of teaching icons like Jim Tressel, City Meyer and now Day, every of whom gained a nationwide title, swiftly responded to archrival Michigan’s championship ascension in 2023 by mobilizing with the type of multi-comma fundraising and ruthless roster development mandatory to succeed in the top one yr later, fortifying this system’s infrastructure alongside the way in which.
All of which serves as the mandatory preamble for a recreation that’s somewhat historic: It’s the primary time since 1988 that the defending nationwide champion will open in opposition to the preseason No. 1 group within the nation. It’s simply the second time within the historical past of the AP ballot, which dates to 1950, that two groups ranked among the many prime three nationally will face one another in Week 1. And there aren’t any groups in school soccer with higher odds of profitable this yr’s nationwide championship than the 2 that may face one another in Columbus on Saturday afternoon, in accordance with DraftKings Sportsbook.
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“I believe it’s nice for faculty soccer enjoying a recreation like this opening weekend,” Day mentioned at a information convention earlier this week. “And we’re excited to play these guys. It’s uncommon that you’d type of play somebody like this towards the tip of the season [in 2024] after which begin the common season with them [in 2025], however right here we’re. And I believe it’s going to offer us an ideal barometer popping out of the primary recreation.”
Although every group’s barometer can be topic to short-term change within the aftermath of Week 1 — with the winner seemingly anointed by the nationwide media because the true nationwide championship favourite — the long-ranging prospectuses for each might hardly be extra encouraging, be that over the course of the 2025 marathon or in future seasons to come back. There are many the reason why the Wall Road Journal labeled Ohio State ($1.957 billion) and Texas ($1.897 billion) the 2 most precious school soccer packages within the nation earlier this yr.
Past Ohio State’s perch because the defending nationwide champion, its declare to be thought of the strongest program within the sport begins with an unbelievable document of participant acquisition and the capital wanted to each procure and retain such expertise yr over yr. Relating to recruiting, the place Day has entrenched himself as the one Massive Ten coach able to competing with conventional SEC powers on an annual foundation, the Buckeyes enter 2025 ranked third behind Alabama and Georgia within the 247Sports Workforce Expertise Composite, a metric that assesses the general high quality of every roster. And relating to the switch portal, which offered Ohio State with a handful of high-level contributors forward of its title-winning season final fall, the Buckeyes have ranked sixth, first and fifth within the nation for common prospect rating over the earlier three years.
Head coach Ryan Day of the Ohio State Buckeyes enters Ohio Stadium previous to the Ohio State Spring Recreation. (Photograph by Ben Jackson/Getty Photographs)
Within the NIL and revenue-sharing world, stringing collectively these sorts of highschool and switch lessons requires supreme group between Ohio State’s personnel division and the monetary arm of its athletic division, the mixing of which might be largely credited to soccer normal supervisor Mark Pantoni and athletic director Ross Bjork. Collectively, they had been two of the main figures behind final yr’s aggressive monetary packages that concurrently retained the core of Day’s senior class and augmented it with an elite switch portal haul that included quarterbacks Will Howard and Julian Sayin, heart Seth McLaughlin, working again Quinshon Judkins and security Caleb Downs, amongst others — all on the lofty value of “round $20 million,” as Bjork later acknowledged.
“I believe it was 4 years in the past that I used to be right here after I mentioned, ‘I believe in about 5 years we can’t acknowledge what school soccer seems like,’” Day mentioned earlier this summer time at Massive Ten Media Days. “I believe that I used to be proper off the sector. I believe I used to be mistaken on the sector. I believe the product is nearly as good because it’s ever been. I believe the athletes are higher than they’ve ever been.
“However off the sector it is simply very, very completely different. It is continually altering. And in order that’s the place nice alignment can be very, essential. I believe we’re very well-positioned right here at Ohio State transferring ahead.”
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The identical is actually true for Sarkisian’s outfit, which has elevated its win complete yearly since he took over in 2021. Not solely is Texas the one FBS group to make the CFP every of the final two years — it misplaced within the nationwide semifinals each instances — however the Longhorns are additionally coming off the winningest two-year stretch in class historical past, matching the 25 victories amassed by former coach Mack Brown in 2008-09. But not even Brown, who beforehand introduced house a nationwide title with Younger in 2005, might information Texas to No. 1 within the preseason AP ballot, one thing the Longhorns had by no means skilled till this summer time. Now, Sarkisian simply wants a title of his personal.
To get this near the summit, Sarkisian has authored a recruiting heater of his personal that underwrote this system’s comparatively seamless transition from the Massive 12 to the SEC, even with an apparent soar within the stage of competitors. His final 4 recruiting lessons have ranked fifth nationally in 2022, third in 2023, sixth in 2024 and first in 2025 to land at No. 4 total within the Workforce Expertise Composite. The present Longhorns’ roster is tied with Alabama for essentially the most former five-star prospects within the nation with 14, which is three greater than Ohio State and 9 greater than another Massive Ten program. A kind of recruits, former No. 1 total prospect Arch Manning, makes his extremely anticipated debut because the group’s beginning quarterback this weekend.
Assembling such a bunch was something however low cost. In April, a report from The Houston Chronicle mentioned Texas was going to spend “between $35 million and $40 million” on its 2025 roster alone, widening eyes and loosening the jaws of school soccer followers throughout the nation. And despite the fact that Sarkisian later rebuffed that quantity — he known as it “irresponsible reporting” throughout an look on SiriusXM — no one is questioning the depths of the Longhorns’ coffers relative to their rivals. Particularly when Sarkisian’s weekly information convention is broadcast on the Longhorn Community, the varsity’s personal tv channel and streaming service, as a result of every part is greater in Texas.
So, whereas there might actually be viable circumstances for Georgia and Alabama because the preeminent powers in school soccer — in any case, these two colleges have mixed to win eight of the final 16 nationwide championships — it’s starting to really feel an increasing number of like Texas’ second in time, particularly if Manning lives as much as the hype. And there ready for him and Sarkisian on the apex of school soccer are the Buckeyes of Ohio State.
“Fairly epic matchup when you concentrate on No. 1 versus No. 2 — in at the least one of many two main polls — for the primary recreation of the season,” Sarkisian mentioned. “As a lot as I’m going to speak about, ‘the rankings don’t matter’ — [and] I imagine that — however I believe for faculty soccer, the fanfare, the thrill round this recreation, I believe is nice for our sport.”
Michael Cohen covers school soccer and school basketball for FOX Sports activities. Observe him at @Michael_Cohen13.
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