Ohio State football: Will Buckeyes return to College Football Playoff in 2025?

Ohio State is coming off its first national title since 2014 last season, and the Buckeyes have serious aspirations of returning to the College Football Playoff and repeating as champs.

Last year, Ohio State won the final game of the season, reigning over the college football world as the first national champion of the 12-team CFP era. The Buckeyes also enter the 2025 season as one of the heavy favorites to win it all in repeat fashion.

According to DraftKings, the Buckeyes are -500 to reach the Playoff again this season. They are also +500 among teams with the best odds to win it all, edging out Texas at +550, the opponent Ohio State will face in its season opener in Columbus. Fans can take advantage of all those odds through the top DraftKings Ohio promo code available.

So, is Ohio State destined to reach the postseason in an attempt to defend its title? Let’s break it all down through a look at their returning production and schedule in 2025.

Ohio State roster and returning production

Ohio State faces a problem similar to many past national title winners. That problem being a massive overhaul of talent at key positions, including stalwart performers on both sides of the ball.

The Buckeyes rank 101st nationally in ESPN’s returning production rankings compiled by Bill Connelly. Some of that is expected, but it illustrates the holes that need plugging on both sides of the ball.

Offensively, the Buckeyes are replacing 3 starters on the offensive line in the form of left tackle Josh Simmons, star guard Donovan Jackson and center Seth McLaughlin. Two of those pieces were first-round picks in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Ohio State is also losing starting quarterback Will Howard, both pieces of the running back tandem of Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson, and veteran wideout Emeka Egbuka. The amount of production from that group that the Buckeyes must replace this fall is borderline astronomical, and that’s just one side of the ball.

Defensively, Ohio State saw 8 defensive players get drafted this spring, including the team’s leading tackler (Cody Simon), the team’s top 2 pass rushers in JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer and multiple veterans in the secondary.

Talking about the roster departures also bears bringing up the fact that the 2 coordinators for Ryan Day are gone. Chip Kelly used his one season with the Buckeyes to catapult back to the NFL on a major contract, and defensive coordinator Jim Knowles used the leverage to land a massive move to Penn State. Offensive line coach Justin Frye also left for the NFL this offseason.

So, no matter which players step into new roles this fall, Ohio State will have a lot riding on new faces making the play-calling decisions. That doesn’t mean the cupboard is bare in terms of talent, but there is a clear lack of continuity that the Buckeyes will have to account for.

In terms of familiar faces, fans will get to see all-world wide receiver Jeremiah Smith suit up for his sophomore season after a massive debut in 2024. Fellow WR Carnell Tate also returns on the offensive side of the ball.

Defensively, Caleb Downs, Sonny Styles, Davison Igbinosun and Caden Curry should anchor the unit while also trying to unlock the talent that CJ Hicks possesses. It will be up to new DC and longtime NFL assistant Matt Patricia to figure it all out.

Ohio State’s 2025 schedule

The beef of Ohio State’s 2025 schedule is at the start and at the very end, bookending the season with an opener against Texas in a rematch of the Cotton Bowl and a matchup vs. Michigan in The Game. The Buckeyes should be slightly favored in both, and the good news is they start the season in Columbus before ending the year in Ann Arbor.

In the middle of the schedule, Ohio State will host Penn State. This might be the best shot the Nittany Lions have of winning the head-to-head matchup for the first time since 2016, but the Buckeyes have learned how to win the close games in that series in a way that James Franklin and his group have not.

If there’s a tricky point to beware of on the schedule, it comes from Sept. 27 through Oct. 18. Across that span, the Buckeyes will play 3 different road games: at Washington, at Illinois and at Wisconsin. Traveling to the West Coast can still cause problems, and Illinois is already gaining traction as an under-the-radar Playoff contender.

Here’s the full schedule for the Buckeyes:

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Will Ohio State reach the Playoff in 2025?

As a general rule, I don’t like to put the kind of national title expectations on a team with as many unknowns as the Buckeyes, and that goes double because it’s not just one key position. A new QB, multiple O-line pieces, and prominent pass rush production are tough to replace in one offseason.

Here’s the good news: Ohio State has the kind of talented pieces most programs would covet to replace the gaps on the roster. That includes the QB room, where either Julian Sayin or Lincoln Kienholz should earn the job.

A greater concern than even the talent level in terms of dictating the curse of the season involves the changes to the coaching staff, including Brian Hartline getting a crack at full-time play-caller as the new OC. Even with those concerns and unknowns, ESPN’s FPI is relatively bullish on the Buckeyes reaching the postseason.

Ohio State enters the season with a 70.6% chance of reaching the Playoff, and the Buckeyes are 1 of just 3 programs in the nation with at least a 70% chance to reach the final field. For what it’s worth, Penn State (63.8%) and Oregon (57.5%) are the only other B1G teams north of 50%, and it’s hard to envision the B1G not getting 3 teams in the final field.

Even if the Buckeyes fail to reclaim the B1G title (a 40.3% chance to win the conference per the FPI), Ohio State should be able to reach the Playoff at 10-2 or better. A season-opening win against Texas would also do wonders for that outlook.

PICK: Ohio State to make the College Football Playoff (-325 via BetMGM)