The first 2015 college football preview magazines are on the newstands now and well, what do you know? No big surprise, defending national champion Ohio State is picked by Sporting News to repeat, while Athlon sees the Buckeyes getting to the championship game again too, but doesn’t take it any further in predicting the ultimate winner. Both, though, have OSU finishing on top of the final College Football Playoff rankings, unlike last season when Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes got in as the No. 4, or last, team in the playoff field, leapfrogging the Big 12’s TCU and Baylor to get there. This year, with having seven starters back on both sides of the ball, the Buckeyes are pegged on the top of the CFP heap at No. 1 going into the semifinal playoff round on New Year’s Eve, with TCU, Auburn and Oregon at 2, 3 and 4 respectively by Sporting News, but followed in order by Alabama, Baylor and Auburn in Athlon’s vision. So if the Sporting News’ scenario pans out, that means then it’s OSU versus the Ducks in a rematch of last season’s national title tilt in the Orange Bowl in Miami and a TCU-Auburn encounter in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, with the Buckeyes then besting the Horned Frogs to claim college football’s crown again. In Athlon’s view however, Ohio State would face Auburn in the Cotton while ‘Bama would have to contend with Baylor in the Orange, after which it would be a Buckeye-Crimson Tide battle for “all the marbles.” I no more than finished writing this when along comes AP College Football Writer Ralph Russo with his bowl projections for the 2015 season. For his CFP entrants, Russo has a new name — Notre Dame — joining the select four and meeting Auburn in one national playoff semifinal in the Cotton Bowl, while his other two semifinal slots are filled by an OSU-Baylor matchup in the Orange Bowl, with the Buckeyes and Tigers advancing on to the championship contest Monday, Jan. 11 in Glendale, Ariz. In addition, WVU and Marshall football fans will be excited if another Russo bowl prediction comes about, and that is a Mountaineers-Thundering Herd confrontation in the Heart of Dallas Bowl. Neiher Athlon or Sporting News has Ohio University better than a break-even middle-of-the pack pick in the MAC East Division with no bowl seen for the Bobcats by either of them as well as Russo. Going back to WVU and Marshall though, Sporting News projects a Marshall vs. Rutgers matchup in the Heart of Dallas Bowl and West Virginia taking on Utah in the Cactus Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., while Athlon has looked into its crystal ball and seen the Mountaineers squaring off with Notre Dame in the Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando and the Thundering Herd clashing with Houston in the St. Petersburg Bowl. Contact Steve Hemmelgarn at shemmelgarn@newsandsentinel.com.
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