Out of its lowest moment of the season came clarity for the Ohio State Buckeyes.  Raw emotions. Honesty. Hard conversations that were long overdue.  It all came spilling out in a players-only meeting on the Tuesday after Ohio State's devastating loss to Michigan in the final weekend of the regular season.

Ohio State is hours away from meeting Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff championship game, capping a season that just in the past eight weeks has seesawed between the depths of another loss to Michigan and the potential high of claiming the program first championship since the debut of the four-team format a decade ago.

Ohio State has been favored in every game throughout this postseason. The Buckeyes opened as 7.5-point favorites over Tennessee, 1.5-point favorites over Oregon and six-point favorites over Texas. That will not change for OSU in the national title game,

A fter Ohio State suffered its fourth consecutive loss to Michigan, the Buckeyes faced a crossroads. In a team meeting led by head coach Ryan Day, the players and staff laid every