College Football Playoff: Notre Dame, Ohio State in uncharted territory playing 16-game seasons

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The year was 1894. Yale put together a football schedule that was daunting: Games on Wednesdays and Saturdays, basically every week from late September to late November, 16 contests in all. No major college football team — what we now call the FBS level — had a 16-game season since. Until now. Welcome to yet another new part of this rapidly changing college football world. Seasons, at least for some teams, will be longer than ever. Texas and Penn State just played their 16th and final games of this 2024 season. And on Jan. 20 in the College Football Playoff championship game, Notre Dame and Ohio State will be playing their 16th and final games of this season in a matchup to decide the national title. "How we got ready for the season, how we're adapting, is you have a plan, you have a team, you have a sports performance team that you listen to, and you talk through some different scenarios and you've got to be adaptable," Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. "You've got to be willing to adapt based off the unpredictable things that can happen, and that's what we've been able to do — and I feel like our guys will be physically ready to roll." The 16-game season didn't come out of nowhere. Expanding the CFP to 12 teams meant that the teams in the national championship game would have to play either three or four games — depending on whether they got a first-round bye or not. With a 12-game regular season and then a conference championship game for some schools, it's almost certain that the national finalists in this system will have to play at least 16 games along the way. Notre Dame and Ohio State each played 13-game seasons last year. Playing 16-game seasons this year could obviously be considered problematic — it's a lot more wear and tear on bodies — but it's also a wonderful problem to have, since it comes with a chance at a national championship. "Along the way, we looked at a lot of different things and metrics about playing this many games, playing our 16th game, what that was going to be like," Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. "We knew it was going to be a little bit of a battle of attrition at times. So, depth was certainly a critical part of roster management and talent acquisition, but also how we practice, how we play. We've taken all those things into consideration so that we're still really, really fresh going into the end of the season." Only three teams at the "major college" level played the 16-game season before this year: Yale in 1894, Penn in 1892 and Yale in 1889. It has happened a handful of times at the FCS and Division II levels as well. But at the FBS level, it hasn't happened in 130 years. It has created new challenges for fans and quite possibly their pocketbooks — Notre Dame and Ohio State each had an extra home game, plus now three bowl games, and none of those tickets were exactly low-priced. It surely has created an issue or two on the academic end; Ohio State's spring term started last week, Notre Dame's spring semester started Monday. And in many cases, players on both teams have simply logged more plays, hits and miles than ever before. Oh, and while this season is ending, next season is in full swing. Players have transferred. Recruits have signed. Coaches have been hired and fired at plenty of schools, and teams are putting together their spring practice schedules. But in South Bend and Columbus, it still may as well be 2024. "I've been an advocate that we need to go to an NFL calendar," Duke coach Manny Diaz said. "We need to get rid of spring football and move into early summer OTAs and mini-camps. We don't have to invent this. The league has already figured it out. ... We're a spring sport now. We need to just act like that." Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden looks at the marathon season as a blessing in some ways. On one hand, it's a ton of work. On the other, the Irish are playing for a ring. He's not complaining. "Most of these guys are navigating it as we go. Nobody's done it before in college," Golden said. "We listen to what the data says and go by it. It's just an interesting time."