It’s Monday, January 12. Just past midnight. The scene is Dallas’s AT&T Stadium. And college football has just been forever changed. The Ohio State Buckeyes have won the inaugural College Football Playoff National Championship game, beating the Oregon Ducks by a score of 42-20.

The 2014-15 Ohio State football campaign was an instant classic, taking one of the most improbable paths to a national championship in history. For Buckeye fans, the past few years were a true test of faith, or should I say, firmness of friendship. Buckeye Nation endured it all, and a national championship was a fitting compensation for three years of what had seemed like fruitless faith. The experts didn’t pick us. The rest of the country didn’t pick us. The conventional wisdom didn’t pick us. Heck, our own coach didn’t even pick us back in September. But this team has taught us that it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. Looking back, it seems as though Carmen Ohio was written just with this season in mind.

Oh come let’s sing Ohio’s praise
And songs to Alma Mater raise
While our hearts rebounding thrill
With joy which death alone can still
Summer’s heat or winter’s cold
The seasons pass the years will roll
Time and change will surely show
How firm thy friendship … OHIO!

Of course, two games will not change long-held beliefs about Ohio State and the Big Ten, but it’s a start. Now there is no denying the (Crimson) tide of college football has turned. For this, Urban Meyer and the 2014 Buckeyes will live on in Ohio State lore.

Written by Chiru Gunawardena’17