More than 20 years after it was on the other end of one of the biggest upsets in BCS history, Miami pulled off the biggest upset of the College Football Playoff era on New Year’s Eve.
The No. 10 Hurricanes beat No. 2 Ohio State 24-14 in the Cotton Bowl to advance to the semifinal round of the playoff. Miami was a 9.5-point underdog at kickoff. Before Wednesday night, the biggest upset in playoff history — in either the four-team playoff or the current 12-team format — was Ohio State’s win over Alabama as a 7.5-point underdog on Jan. 1, 2015.
After Ohio State’s offense showed signs of life in the second half, Miami put the Buckeyes away much like they did Texas A&M — with a power run game. The Hurricanes gave the ball to Mark Fletcher and CharMar Brown five times over the course of six plays before a wide receiver screen to CJ Daniels got Miami inside the Ohio State 10-yard line with less than two minutes to go.
As Ohio State had just one timeout remaining after using its second following Daniels’ catch, all Miami had to do was bleed as much clock as possible to prevent the Buckeyes from having any real shot at the win.
Instead, Ohio State appeared to let Brown score a TD with 55 seconds remaining. The score gave the Hurricanes a 10-point lead, but Ohio State needed as much time as possible.
The last-ditch plan, predictably, did not work out. Julian Sayin was intercepted with 43 seconds to go.
Who will be the first team with a bye to get a win?
A year ago, all four teams that had first-round byes in the first 12-team College Football Playoff lost. Now, Ohio State has stretched the streak to 0-5.
Last season, all four teams with first-round byes were underdogs at the time of kickoff. This year, Ohio State was the biggest favorite of the second round.
It had been nearly 23 years since a favorite as big as Ohio State had lost a BCS title game. In January of 2003, Miami was an 11.5-point favorite over the Buckeyes in OSU’s legendary 31-24 win.
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