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The No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes face the Miami Hurricanes in the College Football Playoff 10 quarterfinals Wednesday at 7:30pm ET. The Buckeyes are 12-1 this season and lost their last game against No. 1 Indiana.
Miami vs. Ohio State will be televised on ESPN and streams live DIRECTV (Free Trial).
What: College Football Playoff Quarterfinals
WHO: Miami Hurricanes #10 vs. No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes
When: Wednesday, December 31, 2025
Where: AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Live Streams: DIRECTV (Free Trial), fuboTV (free trial), Sling
Here’s a recent college football story via the Associated Press:
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Caleb Downs had to be reminded that he’s preparing for his sixth College Football Playoff game, which probably won’t be rare in a decade, but unique in just the second year of the expanded 12-team format.
The Ohio State safety smiled at the thought and figured it couldn’t hurt to play in the CFP as a freshman at Alabama, losing 27-20 to Michigan in overtime before transferring to the arch-rival Wolverines and winning four postseason games and a national championship with the Buckeyes a year ago.
“That could be a positive, just knowing that I’ve been in this situation so many times,” Downs, a two-time All-American, told the Associated Press. “At the end of the day, it’s not about me. It’s about everyone else feeling confident during the game. I’m really just trying to push that to all my teammates.”
He’s talking about younger teammates like freshman Devin Sanchez, the backup cornerback, who struggled to imagine the nerves and emotions in the hours leading up to kickoff in Wednesday night’s Cotton Bowl quarterfinal against No. 10 Miami.
The Hurricanes (11-2, CFP No. 10 seed) are CFP qualifiers for the first time, but got off to an upset start with a 10-3 first-round victory at Texas A&M on Dec. 20.
The third-ranked Buckeyes (12-1, CFP No. 2) received a first-round bye despite losing to top-ranked Indiana in the Big Ten championship.
“You lean on them a lot, more than you think,” Sanchez said. “These are guys that have been here a lot, a couple of guys were in the Cotton Bowl for the third year in a row. So it’s not a new place for them. As a new guy, there’s nothing I can do but lean on them. The speed will be a little different. The intensity will be a little bit higher. Just lean on those guys and when I can go out there, call me when I can go out there.”
Downs remembers the nerves of his CFP debut with the Crimson Tide. He was in the Rose Bowl, a spectacle he had seen on television as a child.
“That was probably the biggest game I played at the time,” said Downs, one of the top 2024 players as the first freshman to lead the storied Alabama program in tackles. “It was a little nerve wracking when I found out.
The Buckeyes were in last season’s Cotton Bowl semifinals, defeating Texas 28-14 after comfortable wins over Tennessee at home and No. 1 Oregon in the Rose Bowl quarterfinals.
Downs found a way to leave the Rose Bowl feeling better. Now he will return to the field where he ran into Texas’ Quinn Ewers nearly a year ago for what will be his 44th game in just three seasons.
“I think with Caleb in general, just the amount of experience he has with football is probably the biggest thing,” first-year defensive coordinator Matt Patricia said. “His professionalism and the way he prepares is probably the best example I can set for all the players.
Downs, a projected first-round pick should he decide to enter the NFL draft in April, isn’t the only veteran linebacker. Davison Igbinosun and Jermaine Matthews Jr., the starting cornerbacks ahead of Sanchez, have been around for a while.
Igbinosun was on the 2023 Ohio State team that also played in the Cotton Bowl, losing 14-3 to Missouri after missing the final four-team playoff.
A year later, Downs, who believed that playoff experience didn’t matter as much as a playoff loss, was with him.
“It definitely added some fuel to the fire because I lost my freshman year,” Downs said. “It made me come back and play better. I think it was a lot of what everybody else on the team felt because they didn’t have the success they wanted earlier in their careers. I think it was a hungry team. And we have to be the same.”
Can I bet on the game?
Yes, you can bet on the game from your phone in New York State, and we’ve rounded up some of the best introductory offers to help you navigate your first bets from BetMGM, FanDuel, DraftKings, Bet365 and others.
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