Ohio
16 Top Water Parks in Ohio
Ohio is already identified for its broad number of theme parks with dizzying rides, from the award-winning coasters at Sandusky’s Cedar Level to the 364-acre King’s Island close to Cincinnati. That stated, the state additionally hosts an array of water parks that may preserve you cool whereas supplying you with one thing to do that summer season. A few of Ohio’s finest water parks are indoor, outside or each, and a handful are literally half of a bigger amusement park resort.
Should you’re hoping to spend a couple of of the most popular summer season days floating down physique slides or twisting down tubes, these prime water parks in Ohio may help you just do that. Learn on to be taught which parks we suggest for the entire household this 12 months.
Pioneer Waterland & Dry Enjoyable Park: Chardon
Positioned in Chardon about 40 miles east of Cleveland, the Pioneer Waterland & Dry Enjoyable Park presents each moist and wild enjoyable and loads of dry actions as well. Throughout the water play space on the park, friends will discover a number of waterslides that measure six tales excessive, a lazy inner-tube trip akin to a lazy river and a 6-acre lake to paddle boats. You may also try the exercise pond to play water volleyball and basketball and traverse its water impediment course. The Kidsland enjoyable zone part of the park options different water sights geared towards kids.
Pioneer Waterland even has its personal campsite, so you’ll be able to deliver your RV to the park or e book a tent for a number of days of enjoyable within the solar.
Handle: 10661 Kile Street, Chardon, OH 44024
Castaway Bay Water Park: Sandusky
Lower than 3 miles from the joys rides of the primary Cedar Level location, Castaway Bay lets friends get out of the solar for some water enjoyable inside, bringing a style of the Caribbean to Sandusky. Main sights at Cedar Level’s indoor water park embrace quite a lot of swimming pools for all ages, a water coaster whose jets launch you uphill, a number of physique slides and a number of sizzling tubs for leisure. The park is housed in a formidable five-story construction designed to really feel like a tropical island setting with its palm bushes and inland lagoons.
Conveniently, Castaway Bay can be a lodge with 237 rooms and suites, some outfitted with separate bunk beds for the youngsters. Different resort facilities embrace an enormous arcade, a craft middle and on-site eating choices.
Handle: 2001 Cleveland Street, Sandusky, OH 44870
Soak Metropolis Water Park at Kings Island: Mason
(Getty Photos)
With greater than 50 aquatic actions to discover in Mason, about 25 miles northeast of Cincinnati, Kings Island’s water park is without doubt one of the prime summer season sights in Ohio. Soak Metropolis Water Park boasts three dozen waterslides of all thrill ranges on prime of its wave swimming pools, rivers and lagoons; you will discover lots to do whether or not you wish to free-fall by means of a funnel, courageous a wave machine or lounge poolside. One among Soak Metropolis’s hottest choices is the almost seven-story Tropical Plunge, with six drop and tube slides for nonstop household enjoyable. Admission to the water park additionally contains entry to Kings Island’s total 364-acre advanced, and you’ll all the time splurge on a personal cabana for the last word leisure at Soak Metropolis.
Kings Island Camp Cedar permits households to arrange camp solely a mile from the amusement park for an in a single day keep on the RV web site or a glamping expertise in one of many luxurious cottages.
Handle: 6300 Kings Island Drive, Kings Mills, OH 45034
Journey Reef Water Park: Kettering
Journey Reef Water Park is a 3-acre outside park within the Dayton suburb of Kettering created to serve households within the space. However vacationers trying to get off the overwhelmed path for some inexpensive enjoyable can are available in from anyplace to take a look at this aquatic amusement choice. This small municipal water park guarantees enjoyable with its splash pad, giant water playground, two waterslides, pool for infants and toddlers, and loads of chairs to calm down in.
Kettering itself could not have a lot in the best way of huge inns, however lower than 10 miles away within the metropolis of Dayton you’ll be able to browse choices on your keep such because the Marriott on the College of Dayton.
Handle: 2900 Glengarry Drive, Kettering, OH 45420
Cedar Level Shores Waterpark: Sandusky
Cedar Level Shores Waterpark, previously often known as Soak Metropolis, is an outside water park located throughout the Cedar Level amusement advanced in Sandusky. The water park presents 18 acres of enjoyable by itself, with interactive aquatic options for small youngsters and jaw-dropping waterslides for thrill-seekers round each flip. Shores Waterpark has winding tube slides and rides to maintain you busy, and a meandering lazy river makes its manner all through the park for friends to chill off whereas enjoyable within the solar.
For a handy place to remain, e book a room on the Lodge Breakers. This beachfront resort is positioned simply steps away from the theme park and the water park – to not point out its swimming pools and water playground imply you’ll be able to partake in much more water recreation.
Handle: 1 Cedar Level Drive, Sandusky, OH 44870
Nice Wolf Lodge: Mason
(Courtesy of Nice Wolf Lodge)
The Nice Wolf Lodge location in Mason, about 25 miles from Cincinnati, makes for a full of life weekend getaway within the Midwest. This indoor water park presents one thing for everybody in your crew to participate in, from a serene lazy river to drop rides, physique slides and tube slides that maintain a number of folks without delay. You may also spend time within the swimming pools and sizzling tubs, whether or not you wish to float the day away, get pleasure from an adults-only escape or train your tot how you can swim.
Nice Wolf Lodge, as its identify would possibly counsel, additionally presents lodging within the type of suites, a few of that are themed and have bunk beds for the youngsters. Park tickets are included together with your nightly keep, although you too can e book a day go.
Handle: 2501 Nice Wolf Drive, Mason, OH 45040
Troy Aquatic Park: Troy
Troy Aquatic Park is a smaller outside water park geared towards households in the local people, however in case you occur to be in Dayton throughout the summer season you’ll be able to all the time make the 20-mile journey north to spend the day having fun with this low-cost attraction. Visitors who go to will discover two waterslides, a drop slide, a heated child pool, an interactive water play space, a pool with zero-depth entry and a number of other giant umbrellas for shade. The on-site Boogie Board Café presents concessions comparable to sizzling pretzels, pizza, ice cream and sweet.
For an extended keep in Troy to spend a couple of days lounging at this facility, try lodge choices lower than 3 miles away, together with the Home2 Suites by Hilton Troy and the Residence Inn by Marriott Dayton Troy.
Handle: 460 W. Staunton Street, Troy, OH 45373
The Seaside Waterpark: Mason
The Seaside Waterpark guarantees aquatic rides that vary from delicate to wild, together with racing slides, a zipper line and a heated wave pool with 750,000 gallons of water. Myriad different big waterslides dot the park, together with rides that plunge, twist and switch friends each which manner. The “delicate” facet comes into play on the park’s lazy river, which is 1,200 ft lengthy and consistently shifting at 5 miles per hour, or the luxurious spa pool full with waterfalls.
A cluster of inns sits lower than half a mile away for straightforward entry to The Seaside, together with the Hampton Inn Cincinnati-Kings Island and Tremendous 8 by Wyndham Mason.
Handle: 2590 Water Park Drive, Mason, OH 45040
Baylor Seaside Park: Navarre
About 40 miles south of Akron, Navarre’s distinctive Baylor Seaside Park is extra of a lake water park than a standard amusement advanced with water options. This attraction facilities on two our bodies of water: The two-acre swimming lake boasts a 90-foot waterslide, kiddie slides, a splash space and diving boards, whereas on the 1-acre paddleboat lake households could make use of rented boats comparable to kayaks and water bikes. The park additionally has mini golf, volleyball courts and even a gem mine to maintain the youngsters busy and entertained out of the water.
Baylor Seaside Park additionally presents tenting on-site so you’ll be able to deliver alongside your RV – however be aware that the campground doesn’t enable tents. Should you favor a lodge expertise, e book a room at The Inn at Amish Door in close by Wilmot, solely 3 miles away, for countryside views and Amish-style meals.
Handle: 8777 Manchester Ave. SW, Navarre, OH 44662
Aqua Adventures at Land of Phantasm Journey Park: Middletown
(Getty Photos)
The Land of Phantasm Journey Park, located in between Dayton and Cincinnati, wows guests from Might by means of January with its beloved Halloween haunts and Christmas shows, however summertime is when its water park involves life. Aqua Adventures is finest identified for its inflatable impediment course proper on the water, which assessments the talents of courageous younger adventurers with monkey bars, a steadiness beam, rope climbs and extra – and younger youngsters get a zone all to themselves. Patrons may observe paddleboarding in Paddle Bay, safe a beverage at Sandy Cove and Aqua Lounge, or zip down the inflatable waterslide.
For in a single day lodging, one shut lodge choice is the Hampton Inn & Suites Springboro/Dayton Space South, positioned solely 7 miles away from the Land of Phantasm.
Handle: 8762 Thomas Street, Middletown, OH 45042
Uhrichsville Water Park: Uhrichsville
Uhrichsville Water Park spans 4.5 acres in northeast Ohio, about 60 miles south of Akron, with loads of actions for small youngsters. This small outside attraction incorporates a 18,000-square-foot heated pool and a baby play space with zero-depth entry. Two waterslides drop instantly into the pool, which might present everybody in your crew with hours of enjoyable. Households who desire a day within the shade can lease their very own cabana on-site.
If you wish to keep solely a mile away, think about reserving a room on the Pink Roof Inn Uhrichsville.
Handle: 401 E. twelfth St., Uhrichsville, OH 44683
Watering Gap Safari & Water Park: Port Clinton
This Port Clinton water park previously often known as Monsoon Lagoon sits about 15 miles from Cedar Level, so you’ll be able to all the time go to each parks within the space for optimum summer season thrills. Points of interest discovered on the Watering Gap Safari & Water Park embrace a large treehouse with 4 waterslides, a lazy river, a number of heated swimming pools and three-story slide tower. The Coral Reef River Journey lets friends get pulled and twisted each which manner whereas floating and having enjoyable. This park additionally incorporates a safari and zoo, a go-kart monitor, and gem mining.
For an opulent and handy keep, lease a waterfront townhome at The Bay’s Edge, which sits lower than half a mile away from the Watering Gap.
Handle: 1530 S. Danbury Street, Port Clinton, OH 43452
Coney Island: Cincinnati
(Courtesy of Coney Island)
Cincinnati’s Coney Island – to not be confused with the New York Metropolis leisure space of the identical identify – has developed from an apple orchard on the Ohio River right into a family-friendly water park since its 1886 founding. The park’s Sunlite Water Journey presents what’s billed because the nation’s largest recirculating pool; different Coney Island aquatic options embrace 130-foot waterslides, a floating impediment course, a dive pool and greater than 70 interactive play stations. The park’s standard Cyclone trip sends friends splashing down 70 ft earlier than dropping them into the primary pool. Additionally included in admission are paddleboat leases, mini golf and inflatable ax throwing.
A number of inns make it simple to remain close by Coney Island, together with Lodge Covington and the Aloft Newport on the Levee, positioned over the border in Kentucky, lower than 10 miles from the park.
Handle: 6201 Kellogg Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45230
Splash Harbor: Bellville
Set between Columbus and Cincinnati in Bellville, the Splash Harbor lodge guarantees household enjoyable for friends who love taking part in and splashing within the water. The on-site indoor water park presents a waterslide, a splash pad play space, rafts to drift on, a water basketball hoop, and swimming pools and sizzling tubs suited to each age group. Additionally at Splash Harbor you will discover an arcade brimming with video games, and within the surrounding space you’ll be able to e book a paddling journey on the Mohican River or try the trampoline park.
A keep at this lodge comes with wristbands for the water park, a free sizzling breakfast and nice eating choices close by.
Handle: 855 Consolation Plaza Drive, Bellville, OH 44813
Kalahari Resorts: Sandusky
(Courtesy of Kalahari Resorts & Conventions)
Kalahari Resorts’ Sandusky location claims to have the most important indoor water park within the Midwest, and as such options no scarcity of unimaginable aquatic actions, together with water racing slides, indoor and outside spas, a FlowRider surf simulator, a swim-up bar and an enormous lazy river. In summer season, guests may make the most of the Zambezi Out of doors Waterpark and pattern its adrenaline-inducing slides and large Lagoon Pool. Kalahari presents different cool water-related alternatives, comparable to the prospect to discover the ocean by means of digital actuality or take a lesson in turning into a mermaid or merman. For but extra summer season enjoyable – this time on dry land – the Safari Out of doors Journey Park has you coated with climbing partitions, animal encounters and mini golf.
You possibly can e book a day go to the water park, however you too can get free entry with an in a single day keep at Kalahari Resorts in your alternative of rooms, suites and villas.
Handle: 7000 Kalahari Drive, Sandusky, OH 44870
Clay’s Resort Jellystone Park: North Lawrence
About 20 miles from Akron, Clay’s Resort Jellystone Park has all types of actions accessible out and in of the water. Water sights embrace slides, inflatable climbing options, overwater zip traces, an impediment course, a swimming lake, canoes and kayaks, and rather more. A big splash pad and children zone may show you how to preserve the smaller kids in your occasion entertained.
This resort presents tenting lodging starting from rustic to luxurious, so you’ll be able to deliver your RV, e book a tent tenting web site, or safe a comfortable rental cabin or a lakeside cottage.
Handle: 12951 Patterson St. NW, North Lawrence, OH 44666
Water Works Household Aquatic Heart: Cuyahoga Falls
This family-centered water park within the northeast Ohio metropolis of Cuyahoga Falls options an expansive tube slide, an open physique slide, two giant drop slides, a pool and its personal lazy river. Waterfalls, geysers and water spray areas additionally guarantee everybody will get moist whereas having time. In the meantime, a sand play space and tot slide can be found for little youngsters.
Close by inns price contemplating embrace the Sheraton Suites Akron Cuyahoga Falls and the Nation Inn & Suites by Radisson, Cuyahoga Falls.
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Ohio
After beating Tennessee, Ohio State will finally get its rematch with Oregon
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State players had been thinking about a rematch with Oregon long before the Buckeyes crushed Tennessee in a first-round playoff game.
Their first chance to avenge the Oct. 12 loss to the Ducks looked to be the Big Ten championship game, but that slipped away when the Buckeyes lost to Michigan and gave up their spot in the title game.
Now, by virtue of Saturday night’s 42-17 win over Tennessee, the Buckeyes will see the Ducks again in a quarterfinal game on a grand stage — the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.
“It’s going to be a heck of an opportunity for all of us,” Ohio State quarterback Will Howard said. “I think we’ve all been looking forward to this one, another crack at these guys. The way the last one ended didn’t sit right with me.”
In the first game, the Buckeyes led twice in the second half but couldn’t hold it. They were driving in the final minute. After a questionable interference penalty on freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith, Howard scrambled out of the pocket to extend a play and slid as time ran out, ending the 32-31 shootout on a mental error.
It would be the closest game of the season for top-seeded Oregon (13-0).
“We’re looking forward to the opportunity because it was not a great game for us,” Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said. “And I know, quite frankly, the guys got a little pissed off. They used that game as motivation. So, I’m sure they’re looking forward to another opportunity.”
The Ohio State defense — now statistically the best in the nation — allowed Heisman Trophy finalist Dillon Gabriel and the Ducks to pile up 496 yards.
“You get to watch yourself play, and watch the mistakes that you’ve made, and you see how they attack you,” Ohio State linebacker Cody Simon said. “But also, there’s a lot of football played in between that. They’ve changed. We’ve changed, and we’re just, we’re going to look at what we need to do, and trust the game plan the coaches have, and we’ll go and tackle them.”
Nearly everything was working right inside the frigid Horseshow on Saturday night, the first December college football game in the history of the 102-year-old stadium.
Howard threw two touchdown passes to Smith and compiled 311 passing yards — his highest total since the Oregon game. TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins rushed for two touchdowns apiece. The defense sacked Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava four times and limited him to 104 passing yards, his lowest total of the season.
Oregon coach Dan Lanning recognized the Buckeyes’ ability to be explosive.
“That’s an elite football that we just played,” Lanning said after the October game. “They’re really, really talented. They don’t have weaknesses.”
Other quarterfinal games include No. 6 seed Penn State against third-seeded Boise State on Dec. 31, and on Jan. 1 it will be No. 5 Texas against No. 4 Arizona State, and No. 7 Notre Dame versus No. 2 Georgia.
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Ohio
Tennessee overwhelmed in humbling Playoff loss at Ohio State: ‘It stings’
COLUMBUS, Ohio — By the time the beating was finished, most of the thousands of Tennessee fans who flooded into Ohio Stadium were gone.
At least two remained — one in a Peyton Manning jersey and another in a coonskin cap — and hovered over the tunnel as the stone-faced Vols walked into the beginning of the end of their season.
They offered encouragement and some high fives in contrast to the derisive “S-E-C” chant coming from the Ohio State student section as the Buckeyes celebrated a cherished Rose Bowl berth that eluded Tennessee.
Ohio State 42, Tennessee 17.
The Vols’ 21-0 hole after the game’s first 12 minutes was too deep to escape. Ohio State’s talent at edge rusher and receiver overwhelmed Tennessee.
Cutting the lead to 11 at halftime offered a brief glimmer of hope until Ohio State forced a punt on the second half’s first possession and followed up with a 65-yard touchdown drive to slam the door for good.
GO DEEPER
Tennessee fans’ orange invasion of Ohio Stadium: ‘Don’t tell us we can’t do that’
“Everybody was just disappointed,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said.
The offensive line struggled to provide quarterback Nico Iamaleava with clean pockets. Tennessee’s receivers couldn’t find space in the secondary, forcing Iamaleava to hold onto the ball and try to create an offense built from scraps of quarterback scrambles.
The secondary struggled to cover Ohio State’s stellar receivers and even when they did, freshman phenom Jeremiah Smith and NFL-bound senior Emeka Egbuka hauled in contested catches anyway.
“They made some plays. That’s gonna happen against a good team,” Heupel said. “What we didn’t do is come back and find a way to get on the right side of it. That’s defensively, offensively, it’s everybody.”
Nico Iamaleava on his 20 carries: “I didn’t expect to run that many times.”
Josh Heupel said some of those were him scrambling.
— David Ubben (@davidubben) December 22, 2024
Injuries, Ohio State’s defense and the early struggles forced Tennessee to try to morph on the fly into a team it isn’t.
Dylan Sampson, the SEC’s Offensive Player of the Year, suffered a hamstring injury late in the regular-season finale against Vanderbilt and aggravated the injury early on Saturday. Tennessee knew entering the game Sampson would be limited, but he was barely available and couldn’t continue after briefly returning in the second half.
He carried the ball at least 19 times in every SEC game this season. He carried the ball twice on Saturday.
Iamaleava hadn’t run the ball more than a dozen times all season. Between called runs and scrambles, he had to carry the ball 20 times. The Vols’ longest passing play of the day was just 21 yards. Iamaleava finished with a season-low 104 passing yards despite throwing the ball 31 times, just the third time this season he’s topped 30 attempts in a game.
“It sucks to go out that way,” Iamaleava said. “That’s not who we are, man.”
He averaged 8.3 yards per attempt during the regular season, good for 21st nationally. He averaged 3.3 yards per attempt on Saturday.
“When we’re not creating explosives, whether it’s poor calls or execution, it puts you in a phone booth,” offensive coordinator Joey Halzle said. “We didn’t stretch them enough. We didn’t force them to respect us going by them enough to make them change up what they were doing. When you let them play comfortable and play in their game plan and don’t make them change, it creates long nights like what happened tonight.”
The defense gave up 311 yards through the air to Will Howard, a quarterback who had just one 300-yard game this season. Tennessee had surrendered 300 passing yards in just one other game this year, to Carson Beck and Georgia.
The Vols lost by 25 in a game in which they won the turnover battle, 1-0.
“Their skill on both sides of the ball was as good as you’ll see,” Heupel said.
Defensive coordinator Tim Banks said the Buckeyes offense didn’t do much the Vols hadn’t prepared for on film. They just did it well and consistently won 1-on-1 matchups.
A breakthrough season crescendoed to the program’s first College Football Playoff bid and arguably the biggest game for the program in at least two decades.
Tennessee fans flooded into Ohio Stadium by the thousands. Instead of witnessing another breakthrough, they were forced to shiver through a breakdown on the sport’s biggest stage and a game that was barely competitive, just like the three first-round games that preceded it.
The only matchup of Big Ten and SEC teams in Round 1 produced the most lopsided result of the opening weekend of the expanded Playoff, with the Big Ten team’s players parading around their home field with roses between their teeth.
Tennessee has looked the part of a good team all season, but losses to Georgia and Ohio State laid bare the reality that the Vols have yet to ascend into the sport’s upper crust and aren’t ready to chase the kinds of titles that have eluded the program since 1998.
Ohio State’s offensive game plan showed aggression and a desire to stretch the field early, making it clear that Tennessee would not be facing the same Buckeyes team that lost a brawl at the line of scrimmage against Michigan three weeks ago.
The Vols came up against one of the nation’s most talented teams. For 60 minutes, the Buckeyes looked the part, flexing at Tennessee’s expense.
“It stings losing like that,” linebacker Will Brooks said.
It was tough to swallow for Heupel, who used the word “disappointed” 10 times in his 14 minutes with reporters after the loss. Multiple times, he was left shaking his head.
He saw the same thing that the thousands of fans in orange witnessed, too.
“Disappointed in our performance for our fans,” Heupel said. “People that have watched us, it wasn’t our best football tonight.”
But it’s the football Tennessee will be left to ponder as it enters an offseason that started earlier than anyone in orange hoped. As Heupel addressed his team, he began by using that word, acknowledging the disappointment of Tennessee’s first trip to the Playoff before pointing to the future after closing a stretch of 30 wins in three seasons.
“Everybody better let that soak in,” Heupel said, “and it’s gotta propel you to whatever’s next.”
(Photo of Nico Iamaleava: Saul Young / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
Ohio
Ohio State's blowout win over Tennessee sets up epic Oregon rematch. It's just a shame it's happening in the quarterfinals
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Are you not entertained?
No, you’re probably not.
Four College Football Playoff first-round games, four outcomes by at least two scores. Two of those were outright blowouts (in State College and Columbus), a third was a dud made closer with two late touchdowns (in South Bend) and a fourth in Austin featured our only suspenseful fourth-quarter moments (thank you, Clemson).
Here in Columbus, the Buckeyes left us wondering a couple of things after a 42-17 drubbing of Tennessee:
Why couldn’t they do this against Michigan?
Are they back to being the favorites to win it all?
Perhaps, they are! After all, no other college roster is more talented, as they reminded us Saturday night in capping college football’s first-ever slew of on-campus playoff games.
Let’s take a look at how ugly this got so quickly. Ohio State’s first punt came with four minutes left in the second quarter. Tennessee’s first pass completion came six minutes into the second quarter. Suddenly, it was 21-0 and the more than 25,000 Tennessee fans who made the journey north were left angry and shivering in wind chills of below 20 degrees.
The Buckeyes (11-2) showed what they can do when they’re cooking and, boy, were they cooking. By cooking, we mean targeting two of the most explosive and talented receivers in the country. Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka tore through the Vols for 11 catches and nearly 200 yards.
Toss in an Ohio State defensive front that swarmed first-year starter Nico Iamaleava and the Buckeyes were well on their way to a win that should lower the heat on the Ryan Day Pressure Cooker, from boiling to less boiling. Afterward, even Day acknowledged that he and the coaching staff called Saturday’s game “more aggressively” than that last outing here against Michigan.
“You’re defined by the way you handle adversity in life,” he said. “To see the way they responded, they had a look in their eye.”
Up next: a rematch against Big Ten champion Oregon in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day — a glorious matchup of a team with college football’s best resume against a team with college football’s most talented roster.
Last time they met, back in October, the Ducks won 32-31 on a last-second finish in a thriller in Eugene. Whether these two should be meeting again so early in a 12-team playoff is certainly a question worth pondering.
But, alas, that’s what the format giveth. Instead of seeding teams based on the CFP selection committee’s rankings, the format calls for the four highest-ranked conference champions to be seeded Nos. 1-4 — a rule that, while understandable as an incentive for league champs, creates unbalanced seeding.
For instance, the committee’s No. 6-ranked team, Ohio State, was seeded eighth and now is pitted against the top seed in the quarterfinals. Look for the format to undergo changes, potentially starting with this very seeding rule that grants byes to only conference champions, as explained in this story last week.
But back to those blowouts.
The ACC got knocked out in the first round, its champion downed by the SEC’s runner-up and its runner-up crushed by the Big Ten’s runner-up (if you’re debating conference strength, those results should be helpful). The Big Ten’s third-best team took down the SEC’s third-best team in Columbus. And Notre Dame quite easily handled the Big Ten’s fourth-best team.
In all, the winners scored 145 points and the losers 68. All higher seeds and home teams won.
Chalk, is what they call it.
This doesn’t necessarily mean these teams — SMU and Indiana, in particular — should have missed the playoff field. Perhaps it only means that, in college football at least this year, the separation between those great teams and those good teams is a wider gap than we first realized.
This isn’t completely new. Don’t you remember all those CFP semifinals the last decade? Fourteen of the 20 semifinal matchups resulted in outcomes of at least two scores. Eight of those were at least three-touchdown blowouts.
It happens.
But what it does tell us, as someone here in the Ohio Stadium press box whispered to this writer, “Maybe this will show everyone that we shouldn’t expand anymore.”
Fourteen teams? Sixteen?
Maybe not.
And it’s now up to Boise State and Arizona State to prevent a nightmare for many college football fans and stakeholders: an All-SEC/Big Ten/Notre Dame semifinal.
The Sun Devils meet Texas in the Peach Bowl, and the Broncos tangle with Penn State in the Fiesta. Boise State and ASU were ranked No. 9 and No. 12 by the committee but got the third and fourth seeds because of that pesky conference title rule we earlier mentioned.
Can they deliver? As underdogs against the sport’s big brands, they’ll have plenty across the country rooting for them.
Meanwhile, in Pasadena, we’ll get what many expected in the preseason to maybe be a national title game matchup: Oregon vs. Ohio State.
It’s a mouthwatering duel, backdropped by the sunset over the San Gabriel Mountains. In fact, as midnight struck here in Columbus, Rose Bowl officials readied dozens of single cut roses to be handed to Ohio State players and coaches.
What a difference that three weeks makes, huh? The last game here ended in an embarrassing midfield flag-planting brawl and a shocking loss to three-touchdown underdog Michigan — a fourth consecutive defeat to the Wolverines in this heated rivalry series and one that seemed to turn off some fans here.
“You don’t just move on from the game,” Day said. “You identify the issues and let the players speak. You put a plan together to get these things fixed. To say it doesn’t weigh on you, it does. These guys have a lot of pride.”
Despite efforts from Ohio State administrators, many Buckeyes fans sold away their tickets to this playoff bout. Visiting teams get 3,500 tickets to CFP first-round games. The Vols brought at least 25,000 strong, peppering this 102,000-seat stadium in orange. It was more visiting fans than some long-time Ohio State reporters had ever seen in this venue.
By the start of the fourth quarter, many of them were gone, exiting into the chilly night for the jaunt down Interstate 71 having suffered what was the ugliest of the first-round blowouts. After all, OSU out-gained Tennessee 473-256 in yards and played its third-string — third-string — quarterback in the final minutes.
As a final goodbye on this cold Saturday night, Ohio State stadium operators played over the speakers a familiar refrain for those in orange: Rocky Top.
Back to Tennessee they went. And off to L.A. go the Buckeyes, deliverers of the most crushing win of this historic weekend in the sport.
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