National Championship Betting – (2) Ducks, (4) Buckeyes Face-off for Title

College Football Playoff Championship: AT&T Stadium, Arlington (Jan. 12, 8:30 p.m. Eastern)

(2) Oregon Ducks (-6, 74 o/u) vs. (4) Ohio State Buckeyes

The wait is finally over. After decades of clamoring for a playoff system in college football, fans are finally going to reap the rewards tonight, as the first College Football Playoff Championship game, featuring the No. 2. Oregon Ducks (13-1) against the No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes (13-1), takes place in Arlington.

In all likelihood, tonight’s game will be Heisman Trophy-winner Marcus Mariota’s last collegiate contest.

The dynamic, dual-threat quarterback is a virtual lock to be the No. 1 draft pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, as long as the underclassman declares. In his three-year tenure at Oregon, Mariota has passed for more than 10,460 yards with 103 touchdowns to only 13 picks.

Naturally, Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer knows that Mariota is public enemy number one tonight.

“Our No. 1 concern is their quarterback,” said Meyer, whose Buckeyes upset Alabama, 42-35, at the Sugar Bowl.

The good news for Ohio State is its defensive line, which includes future NFLer Joey Bosa, is one of the best in the country.

After leapfrogging both TCU and Baylor to earn a spot in the Sugar Bowl against Alabama, Bosa and his teammates had something of a “we’re just happy to be here” approach to that game. After stunning the Tide as nine-point underdogs, the Buckeyes have a different demeanor heading into the title game.

“This is much more of a business trip, this time around,” Bosa said. “Last week we went, we hung out and had some fun. This week it’s all about business; no going out, no messing around. We’re just preparing.”

For his part, Mariota is aware that the Buckeyes defense is going to pose some new problems. “They’ve got an awesome front seven. Big, physical guys that really control the line of scrimmage,” said Mariota.

When Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich, who led his team to a 59-20 win over Florida State at the Rose Bowl, looks at the matchup for this national championship game, he sees two similar teams.

“We’ve been playing, both our program and Ohio State have played with that kind of early loss, and your back was against the wall to get to this point every play of every game, the entire rest of the season, it was to the those words: do or die,” Helfrich said.

A lot has been made about the Ducks being without receiver Darren Carrington, who won’t play due to a failed drug test. Even though Carrington posted 14 receptions for 292 yards and three scores in Oregon’s last two games, Helfrich isn’t worried.

“We don’t have things in our system that it’s, ‘Hey, we need to throw this guy the ball in this play period,'” Helfrich said. “That doesn’t exist.”

As far as betting this game, since Carrington is out and the Ohio State defense is solid, the under (74.5) is a consideration, but the better play is the Buckeyes and the points (+6).

(Photo credit: Neon Tommy (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)