ESPN tasked its army of college football writers and analysts to put pen to paper and pick the first round of the college football playoff slate in the immediate moments after it was released.
Today we’ll show how that group picked the specific matchup of Tennessee at Ohio State, which will be a first-round playoff game in the top half of the bracket in the 8/9-seed matchup.
Tennessee and Ohio State will square off at 8:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, Dec. 21, in Ohio Stadium.
ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg published his own column breaking down the first-round games while the company had several writers put together their predictions in a separate post. Rittenberg’s breakdown goes much more in-depth and he starts off this list by picking Ohio State in a 29-16 contest over Tennessee.
Rittenberg acknowledges Ohio State’s brutal loss to Michigan in the regular season rivalry week finale but believes that history has shown that the Buckeyes can bounce back.
“Two years ago, Ohio State responded from a home loss to Michigan and played one of its best games under Day before falling to eventual national champion Georgia,” Rittenberg wrote. “The Buckeyes will need a similar rebound, especially on offense, against a very talented Tennessee defense led by Jermod McCoy, Joshua Josephs, James Pearce Jr. and others.”
Rittenberg also pointed to some of Tennessee’s struggles outside of Neyland Stadium as a reason to be skeptical about picking the Vols.
“Will Ohio State’s superteam tap out in the first round of the CFP? I don’t see it,” Rittenberg wrote. “Tennessee hasn’t been great away from Knoxville this season, and Ohio Stadium will be a difficult setting for Nico Iamaleava and the Vols offense. Ohio State’s defense has performed well since the Oregon loss, and will rise up again, as Caleb Downs collects a takeaway.”
Including Rittenberg, nine of ESPN’s 12 analysts picked Ohio State to win the game. Of those nine who picked Ohio State, eight picked Tennessee to cover the 7.5 spread that FanDuel currently lists. Only Mark Schlabach had Ohio State winning by eight or more points with an 11-point game.
Three analysts picked Tennessee to beat Ohio State by a combined seven points but all three have the Vols losing to Oregon in the quarterfinals.
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Here’s a look at how ESPN’s analysts (alphabetically) picked the Tennessee-Ohio State game on Sunday afternoon:
Andrea Adelson: Ohio State 27, Tennessee 24
Kyle Bonagura: Ohio State 28, Tennessee 24
Bill Connelly: Ohio State 17, Tennessee 10
David Hale: Ohio State 28, Tennessee 27
Eli Lederman: Ohio State 24, Tennessee 20
Chris Low: Ohio State 27, Tennessee 24
Max Olson: Ohio State 17, Tennessee 14
Adam Rittenberg: Ohio State 26, Tennessee 19
Mark Schlabach: Ohio State 28, Tennessee 17
Jake Trotter: Tennessee 21, Ohio State 20
- Oregon 35, Tennessee 28
Paolo Uggetti: Tennessee 27, Ohio State 24
- Oregon 34, Tennessee 21
Dave Wilson: Tennessee 34, Ohio State 31
- Oregon 30, Tennessee 24
