Urban Meyer has a flock of friends in the football coaching realm, but recently he turned to those who coach another sport to answer a question about the College Football Playoff.
"The College Football Playoff has taken on a life of its own, it's March Madness basically," Meyer said a week ago on the Fiesta Bowl teleconference. "Great friends of mine are basketball coaches, they always talk about the intensity of March Madness. March Madness for us starts in August. That's the way it is."
In many ways, Meyer is correct. With it being the second season of the Playoff era in college football, the game is changing now from where it stood with the BCS system in place. Losses cripple a team's résumé as always, but even more so now if they come near the end of the season.
“The fact we are playing a team that should be playing for the national championship, they're certainly talented enough and well coached enough that certainly will make the focus that much easier.”– Urban Meyer
In 2014, Meyer's Buckeyes fell at home to Virginia Tech in September but bounced back to go on an improbable run, winning the Big Ten and national championships. This season, Ohio State stumbled on Senior Day in late November to an excellent Michigan State team, knocking it out of the running for the Big Ten title.
There still was a tiny chance Ohio State could slip into the Playoff without a conference championship, but it didn't happen. For a team with nothing but national championship expectations in 2015, however, a devastating loss like the one it endured to the Spartans wasn't easy to handle.
"That was a tough week," Meyer said.
But, the Buckeyes had another game — The Game, to boot — the following Saturday. Michigan provided a chance for Ohio State to release its frustrations from the loss to Michigan State.
The Buckeyes dominated in Ann Arbor, 42-13, and Meyer thinks the regret in dropping the game to the Spartans and missing the Playoff is absent. Now, the attention is solely on Brian Kelly and Notre Dame.
"I think that's gone. I think it found its way out rivalry week and then the way they played that week, I'm sure it's gone," Meyer said. "Now it's just, 'Let's go play our tails off one more time.' We're a great football team and let's finish this thing the right way."
The No. 7 Buckeyes take on the No. 8 Fighting Irish New Year's Day at the Fiesta Bowl looking for their 12th win of the year. The season might always be viewed as a disappointment with such high aspirations and a talented team falling short of the ultimate goal, but putting a cap on it with one more victory will prove Meyer right.
"To go undefeated in major college football is very hard, and then you start engaging in the losses when they happen, how they happen, that's very hard on the team," Meyer said. "It's not like this all the time. We're very fortunate to have great leadership on our team.
"That was proven by the way they played last year and then also this year after a loss."
A single loss in college football can prove fatal for a team vying for a national championship, just like it does when the NCAA Tournament rolls around in March.
It's a different kind of madness, but one Meyer thinks he's team's moved on from and is instead anxious to finish its season the right way against a worthy opponent.
"The fact we are playing a team that should be playing for the national championship, they're certainly talented enough and well coached enough that certainly will make the focus that much easier," Meyer said.
