Inside Ohio State’s Championship Trip to the White House

WASHINGTON — Adept at time management as any president past the halfway point of his second term would be, Barack Obama managed to fit plenty into his ceremony with the Ohio State football team on Monday.

Hosting the reigning national champions at the White House three months after the Buckeyes captured the college football crown in Dallas, the 44th President of the United States imitated Joey Bosa’s signature shrug, compared his arm strength to that of Cardale Jones and even teased Ezekiel Elliott about college football’s banning of the crop top.

But before Urban Meyer and the Ohio State captains presented Obama with his own custom No. 44 scarlet and gray jersey, the leader of the free world had one last overarching message:

“You’re welcome, America.”

Obama said it somewhat in jest as laughter filled the room, referring to his open campaigning for college football to adopt a playoff system. But the president also made sure to note that if you check his track record of promises kept on PolitiFact.com, his cry for a playoff is met with a green check mark.

“I don’t want to stir up controversy. You guys are the national champions—I’m not backing off the fact we need a playoff system,” Obama said when Meyer visited the White House with his 2008 national champion Florida team. “We’ll see how that plays itself out.”

While a playoff system back then may have prevented Meyer from capturing his second national title, he wouldn’t have won a third last…

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