College Football Championship

On Monday, The Oregon Ducks will be taking on The Ohio State Buckeyes. The winner will become the first college football playoff champion. A new format, a new trophy, and the first "True" champion. Whether it changes to 8 teams in a few years or not, both of these Universities have earned there spot in the title game. Below is a full break down of the teams and what they will need to do to win.

The Match-Up

#3 Oregon v.s. #5 Ohio State

Each team suffered one loss and had identical records of 13-1. Oregon loss was in week six against Arizona who beat them by a score of 31-24. As for Ohio State their loss came to Virgina Tech in week two by a score of 35-21.Lets now look at which is a better loss if there is such a thing, Arizona finished the season 10-4 and ranked 10th in the nation. Virgina Tech was a far different story they went on to finish a measly 7-6. On top of that Arizona is playing in one of the two hardest conferences this year (Pac-12), while Virgina Tech resides in the ACC. Add on top of that the fact that Oregon was able to get retribution for the loss with a 51-13 win over Arizona in the Pac-12 championship game. Last week Oregon took down third ranked Florida State, and Ohio State took down first ranked Alabama. All in all both teams are deserving,  now lets look at who the teams are.

#3 Oregon

Oregon is still the offensive power house they are known for but now they have a defense to go along with it. The key to Oregon is Marcus Mariota, the possible number one overall pick in this years draft is ranked third in FBS for passing yards with 4,121 yards,he also has 40 passing TDs and 15 rushing TDs. The Ducks are not one dimensional anymore they can also run it with Royce Freeman who has 1,343 yards on the ground and 18 TDs. The defensive was lead by senior defensive back Ifo Ekpre-Olomu how was injured last week and will not be playing. The slack was picked up last week and secondary will need to do so again this week, starting off with safety Erick Dargan who leads the team with 7 interceptions.

Key: If they want to win they will have to get to Cardale Jones and put him under pressure and hope he throws some bad balls that the secondary can capitalize on. They will also need to start scoring and not stop, if they can get an early two touchdown lead then they could send another rusher and hopefully make Jones rush his throws.

#5 Ohio State

The Buckeyes have been a very resilient team, whether it is going from your first string to second to third string quarterback or losing in week two after having all the pressure from the off-season that they were going all the way. They are lead on defense by Defensive Lineman Joey Bosa who has 13.5 sacks on the season ranking him 6th in the FBS. On offense they have a great rusher in Ezekiel Elliott who has 1,402 yards on the season. As stated above they are on their third quarterback of the season, they started with Braxton Miller then when he got hurt they turned to J.T. Barret, then after his injury they turned to Cardale Jones who has taken the job and ran with it. Jones has wins over Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game and then defeated number one ranked Alabama. In those two games he has thrown for 500 yards with 4 TDs and 1 Interception.

Key: If Ohio State want to win they have to find a way to contain Mariota and not let him get the edges. Ohio State's defensive back will also have to keep up with the speed of the Oregon receivers. As for offense Ohio State needs to do what they did the whole season while going through quarterback, they need to find what Jones is comfortable with and find a way to win with those plays.

Predictions

Joseph : Oregon 35 - 28
James: Ohio State 37 - 35