Defending national champion Ohio State to 3rd straight Cotton Bowl, will face Miami or Texas A&M
Indiana's D'Angelo Ponds tries to stop Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith during the first half of the Big Ten championship NCAA college football game in Indianapolis, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. Credit: AP/AJ Mast
ARLINGTON, Texas — Defending national champion Ohio State is going to the Cotton Bowl for the third season in a row, this time for a College Football Playoff quarterfinal game on New Year's Eve against Miami or Texas A&M.
The Big Ten runner-up and third-ranked Buckeyes (12-1) won their CFP semifinal last January at the Cotton Bowl over Texas, then went on to beat Notre Dame for the national title.
Seventh-ranked Texas A&M (11-1) from the Southeastern Conference and No. 10 Miami (10-2), the only playoff team from the Atlantic Coast Conference, got at-large playoff berths after missing out on their conference championship games. Both make their CFP debut when they play in College Station on Dec. 20, the first of three CFP games that day.
Both the Hurricanes and Aggies beat Notre Dame (10-2), which had won its 10 games since but was left out of the 12-team playoff bracket Sunday, then said it wouldn't play in a bowl.
Miami made the playoff after jumping Notre Dame in the final CFP rankings. The Irish lost their season opener 27-24 at Miami on Aug. 31, then fell 41-40 at home to Texas A&M the next week.
“We felt confident because as long as everybody just kind of abided by the criteria that we would be in a good place, and thankfully that was the case,” Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said during ESPN's playoff selection show.
The Hurricanes have won four games in a row since an overtime loss Nov. 1 at SMU, a playoff team last season. Miami and the Mustangs were part of a five-way tie for second place in the ACC standings with two league losses each. Duke, with five losses overall, won the tiebreaker, beat Virginia in the league championship game and got left out of the playoff.
Texas A&M wide receiver Ashton Bethel-Roman (3) catches a pass for a thouchdown over over Samford cornerback Nahil Perkins (3) during the first quarter of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, in College Station, Texas. Credit: AP/Sam Craft
“It’s validation of everything that we preached, everything that we set out to do,” Cristobal said later on a Zoom call. “This is a great step, but again, we’re not here just to participate. We want to make sure that the best version of the University of Miami is out there like it was the last four weeks.”
Ohio State still got a first-round playoff bye after its 13-10 loss to undefeated Indiana in the Big Ten championship game. The Hoosiers were No. 2 in the penultimate CFP rankings, but switched spots Sunday with the previously top-ranked Buckeyes.
“We’re going to respond like men. We’re not going to sit around and point fingers and feel sorry for ourselves. We lost. We were not at our best," Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “Hopefully we’re able to have a great month and prepare, and then go play in this Cotton Bowl and be at our best.”
When Ohio State lost 14-3 to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl at the end of the 2023 season, it wasn’t a playoff game. The Buckeyes were without two-time AP All-America receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., who opted out of the game before declaring for the NFL draft, and starting quarterback Kyle McCord after his departure for Syracuse.
Virginia Tech quarterback William Watson III (5) and Tech running back Jeffrey Overton (16) celebrate after a touchdown during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Miami, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, in Blacksburg, Va. Credit: AP/Robert Simmons
The Aggies, who with a win remain in their home state for the second round, won their first 11 games before a 27-17 loss at Texas in the regular-season finale. They are one of five SEC teams in the 12-team playoff bracket.
“Yeah, I think it’s where we need this program to be. It’s part of the mission that we’ve been on, which is for people to start talking about what we’ve accomplished and a little bit less about what we’re capable of being,” second-year A&M coach Mike Elko said. “So when you see Texas A&M up there on that big playoff board, it’s an exciting opportunity and a statement that we’ve made about where we’ve elevated this program to. ... The first goal was to get the name on the board. Now we've got to go out and we've got to prove that we belong there.”
Miami and Texas A&M played in 2022 and 2023, with the home team winning each time. Elko was Duke's head coach in 2022 for a 45-21 win at Miami.
The Cotton Bowl is played at AT&T Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and where the Buckeyes won the first national championship in the CFP format, then a four-team bracket at the end of the 2014 season. Ohio State’s other Cotton Bowl appearances were wins over Southern California at the end of the 2017 season, and a 28-12 win over Texas A&M on New Year’s Day 1987.
