Can a 9-3 Ohio State Team STILL Make the College Football Playoff?!
Menace2Sports with Zach Smith
Menace 2 Sports with Zach Smith
4.7 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 16 February 2026
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Could a 9-3 Ohio State Buckeyes team still make the College Football Playoffs in 2026 — even with a brutal strength of schedule? The Buckeyes' 2026 slate features elite opponents like Texas, Oregon, Indiana, USC, and Michigan — making every loss costly but also potentially impressive to the CFP committee.
Today, we go LIVE to break down the 2026 Ohio State football schedule, discuss how the expanded CFP format and new strength-of-schedule metrics could play into their favor, and debate whether three losses would be enough to still punch a playoff ticket.
We'll discuss LIVE:
🏈 The Ohio State 2026 schedule and its toughest matchups
🏈 How strength of schedule affects CFP rankings and selection
🏈 Scenarios where a 9-3 Buckeyes team still makes the playoff
🏈 Importance of quality wins vs bad losses
🏈 How the expanded CFP could benefit OSU
🏈 Fan predictions and breakout games for the Buckeyes
👍 Follow on Rumble for LIVE college football breakdowns
💬 Chat is open — Buckeye Nation, can a 9-3 OSU team make the CFP?
🔔 Turn on notifications for future playoff previews and predictions
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Ohio State Football is one of the most successful college football programs in history. With a total of 9 National Championships, the Buckeyes have established themselves as a powerhouse in the NCAA. Led by head coach Ryan Day, Ohio State has become known for its hard-hitting, aggressive defense and a high-octane offensive attack. While their recent success has been rooted in their strong recruiting class and their 2014 national championship, the program has a long and storied history in the college football world. On any given Saturday, the OSU faithful can be found inside the famous Ohio Stadium cheering on the scarlet and gray. Regardless of the opponent, each game brings out the passion and excitement that Ohio State fans are so well known for. Follow the Buckeyes and join the Buckeye Nation in their quest to reach another championship. Go Bucks!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's a push and pee Monday. That's Pat. I'm Chris. Happy Patternay. Got a lot that we want to dig into today. Obviously, like, the big thing next year is how difficult the Ohio State schedule is. Bobby Carborder was talking on the radio and said, you know what, a 9 and 3 team is going to make it in next year. 9 and 3 Ohio State could make it in. And there's a lot of factors that go into that. I do want to talk about that. |
| 0:24.2 | A lot of factors that go into that i do want to talk about that a lot of random stuff happening as well joey agalars um hearing was last week the day after the trinidad chamber chamber chambered chamber's hearing we have sacramento state going to the mac we've got a couple of draft madness silly season shit we got a lot going on that is my is my co-host, Pat Cahill. As you get in the door, check in, drop in the comments where you're listening from. Also, let me know any questions you have for today's show. Today, I feel like I did write a lot, but I think I want to do more and more, I guess, like, community interaction on today's show. |
| 0:54.4 | So that's kind of how I'm feeling, generally speaking. |
| 0:56.9 | If you're watching on Twitter, hit us with a retweet. |
| 0:59.1 | Are we on Twitter or not on Twitter today? We are. We are on Twitter. Yeah. Hit us with a retweet. Actually, there's not even a tweet to retweet. So we've got to get that tweet up. Pat, can you do that for me? |
| 1:07.1 | Absolutely. |
| 1:08.0 | After Pat gets a tweet up, we'll retweet it. |
| 1:10.4 | And yeah, we'll get things going. |
| 1:12.3 | But dude, also, like, real quick, I don't know if you saw Tyree Kill got released. Dude, literally right before the show, I got that update. I was like, holy fuck. We don't do a lot of NFL, but I do want to throw that on there. And also, there is, seems to be a weird divide in the Banglis community about is Sunny Stiles worth that pick at 10? |
| 1:29.0 | We're going to talk about that too. |
| 1:30.5 | We do have a pretty large Cincinnati Bengals, I guess, group of people that listen. |
| 1:35.3 | Also have a large Ohio State Group of people to listen. |
| 1:37.8 | So I would want to ask the question, would you be okay with Sunny Stiles 10 to the bangles? |
| 1:45.4 | Pat, I guess I should ask you, how are you holding up? |
| 1:49.1 | Now, here you go. |
| 1:49.8 | This is a great question. |
| 1:50.7 | So we do a show at noon every single day. |
| 1:53.0 | Do you eat lunch before or after? |
| 1:55.4 | Dude, it depends on the day. |
| 1:57.3 | But like just now, I literally just ate right before the show. |
| 2:00.8 | Typically, if we're in studio |
| 2:02.8 | i'll eat like something small in between shows and then eat something bigger after um the shows |
... |
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