Ohio State, Miami To Meet in CFP Quarterfinals at the Cotton Bowl

FIRST AND TEN

Ohio State, 12-1 overall and the No. 2 seed in the College Football Playoffs, and Miami (11-2 and No. 10) will meet in the CFP quarterfinals Wednesday, Dec. 31 at 7:30 p.m. EST in the 90th Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Ohio State is in the CFP for the seventh time in 12 years and for the fifth time in the last seven years under the direction of head coach Ryan Day. No school has been to more CFPs than Ohio State since 2019.
By game day, Ohio State will have last played 25 days ago, Dec. 6, in the Big Ten championship game vs. Indiana.
Miami advanced to the CFP quarterfinals with a 10-3 victory over Texas A&M Dec. 20 in a CFP first-round game at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas.
The winner of the Cotton Bowl advances to the Fiesta Bowl to play the winner of No. 3 Georgia vs. No. 6 Ole Miss at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 8.
Ohio State is the defending CFP national champion, has won two CFP titles (2015 and 2025) and four consecutive CFP games – over opponents ranked Nos. 7, 1, 3 and 5, respectively – and is 7-4 all-time in CFP games.

BY THE NUMBERS
92-93: Ryan Day has coached 93 games at Ohio State and in 92 of them his team has been nationally ranked in the Associated Press Top 10 poll. Ohio State has been ranked in the Top 5 in 82 of those games.

4: Only four teams have made the CFPs in both the 2024 and 2025 post-seasons as part of the current 12-team format: three from the Big Ten – Ohio State, Indiana and Oregon – and Georgia.

27-10: Ohio State is 27-10 (.730), with nine wins in the last 10 games, under Ryan Day in contests against nationally ranked teams, including a 16-9 record vs. Top 10 teams and an 8-7 record vs. Top 5 teams.

OHIO STATE'S CFP HISTORY

Ohio State is playing in the College Football Playoffs for the seventh time since the start of the CFP era in 2014 and it is the only school to appear in five of the last seven CFPs, all under the direction of head coach Ryan Day.
Ohio State is No. 2 all-time in CFP wins (7) and tied for No. 2 in appearances (along with Clemson), trailing only Alabama's nine appearances and 10 wins.
Georgia and Oklahoma round out the Top 5 with five CFP appearances apiece.
Ohio State won the inaugural College Football Playoffs in 2014 and is 7-4 all-time in CFP games. Ohio State' CFP Results:
2014 Season - Defeated No. 1 Alabama, 42-35, in a CFP semifinal at the Sugar Bowl; Defeated No. 2 Oregon, 42-20, in the CFP championship game at Arlington, Texas
2016 Season - Lost to No. 2 Clemson, 31-0, in a CFP semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl
2019 Season - Lost to No. 3 Clemson, 29-23, in a CFP semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl
2020 Season - Defeated No. 2 Clemson, 49-28, in a CFP semifinal at the Sugar Bowl; Lost to No. 1 Alabama, 52-24, in CFP national championship game at Miami, Fla.
2022 Season - Lost to No. 1 Georgia, 42-41, in a CFP semifinal at the Peach Bowl
2024 Season – Defeated No. 7 Tennessee in a CFP first-round game at Ohio Stadium, 42-17; defeated No. 1 Oregon, 41-21, at the Rose Bowl; defeated No. 3 Texas, 28-14, at the Cotton Bowl; and defeated No. 5 Notre Dame, 34-23, in the CFP championship game at Mercedez Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

A RECORD CFP RUN

Last year during that 31-day College Football Playoffs run, Ryan Day coached and led his team and coaching staff on the greatest and most difficult journey to win a national championship in collegiate football history.
Running and winning against that gauntlet of formidable foes – No. 7 Tennessee, No. 1 Oregon, No. 3 Texas and No. 5 Notre Dame – not only secured Ohio State's ninth national championship, and third this century after titles in 2002 and 2014, but also capped a program record-tying 14-win season.
Day joined Paul Brown (1942), Woody Hayes (1954-57-61-68-70), Jim Tressel (2002) and Urban Meyer (2014) as Ohio State coaches to win a national championship, and he joined Meyer as the only Ohio State head coaches with multiple seasons of at least 13 wins.
Among active head coaches, Day is now one of only three to have won a College Football Playoff national championship. The others: Georgia's Kirby Smart and Clemson's Dabo Swinney.
The wins over Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame, combined with regular season wins over No. 3 Penn State and No. 5 Indiana, gave Ohio State the distinction of becoming the first team in major college history to defeat five opponents ranked in the Top 5 in one season.

COTTON BOWL/AT&T STADIUM HISTORY

This is the third consecutive year that Ohio State is playing in the Cotton Bowl Classic.
Ohio State is 3-1 in Cotton Bowl games and 3-1 in games at AT&T Stadium.
In Cotton Bowls, Ohio State has defeated Texas A&M, 28-12 in 1987, USC, 24-17 in 2017 and Texas, 28-14 in 2025 with a 14-3 loss to Missouri in 2023. All but the 1987 game were played at AT&T Stadium.
Ohio State defeated Oregon, 42-21, at AT&T Stadium to win the 2015 College Football Playoff national championship.

10 BUCKEYES WITH CFP STARTS

Ohio State's roster features 10 players who have started in the College Football Playoffs.
On offense, WR Jeremiah Smith, TE Will Kacmarek, C Carson Hinsman and G Tegra Tshabola have four starts apiece while OT Austin Siereveld and OG Luke Montgomery each made two starts last year and WR Carnell Tate started once.
On defense, SAF Caleb Downs has five CFP starts between Ohio State and Alabama and LB Sonny Styles and CB Davison Igbinosun have four starts each.

STATS … STATS … CFP STATS

Some current player stats from previous CFP games:
Sonny Styles has 26 total tackles, four TFLs and a forced fumble (vs. Tennessee);
Caleb Downs has 20 tackles, five passes defended and an INT (vs. Texas);
Davison Igbinosun has 15 tackles and two PBUs;
Jermaine Mathews has seven tackles, Arvell Reese six and Caden Curry four tackles and a FF (vs. Tennessee);
Jeremiah Smith had 19 receptions for 381 yards and five TDs in last year's four games;
Carnell Tate had 11 receptions for 150 yards; and
Will Kacmarek and Brandon Innis had three and two receptions, respectively.

OHIO STATE VS. MIAMI: SERIES HISTORY

Ohio State and Miami have played five times, but Ohio State's 2010 win was vacated and so the official series record per Ohio State reflects two wins apiece.
Ohio State defeated Miami, 10-0, in 1977 at Ohio Stadium and Ohio State won the 2002 national championship with a 31-24 double overtime win in the national championship game at the Fiesta Bowl.
Miami defeated Ohio State in the 1999 Kickoff Classic at East Rutherford, N.J., 23-12, and the Hurricanes won the last meeting between the two schools, 24-6, in 2011 in Miami.

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