Ohio State Buckeyes players celebrate their 34-23 win over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to win the College Football Playoff National Championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Jan. 20, 2025. Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Is Ohio State's 2024 national championship more impressive than LSU's 2019 title?

By Austen Bundy | Last updated Jan 21, 2025 7:20 PM ET

The eighth-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes conquered the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff (CFP) and lifted the national championship trophy Monday for the first time since 2014-15.

It's been exactly a decade since the very first CFP, when the boys from Columbus topped college football's summit as the four-seed.

In that decade, there have been several formidable playoff showings but none that shined brighter than LSU in 2019.

The Tigers, led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Joe Burrow, dominated their two opponents by a combined score of 105-53 with a ridiculously stacked roster featuring five future first-round selections at the 2020 NFL Draft.

However, after what Ohio State did this season, it may be worth examining who had the more impressive showing.

The 2024 Buckeyes became the first team all-time to beat five AP top-five opponents in a single season. The previous record was four, held by three different teams (2019 LSU, 1967 USC and 1943 Notre Dame).

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But LSU went undefeated on its 2019 title run while Ohio State stumbled twice this year, including a painful fourth straight loss to arch-rival Michigan.

Ohio State also owned the best point differential in any single edition of the CFP (+70), outscoring opponents 145-75. The next closest team was 2022 Georgia (+59), albeit having only played two postseason games in the old four-team format.

Ohio State's Will Howard became the first transfer quarterback since Auburn's Cam Newton in 2010 to win a national title in his first year at a new school.

Burrow, ironically a transfer from Columbus himself, probably had the more iconic achievements in 2019, though. He broke the all-time FBS records for most passing touchdowns (60), total offensive yards (6,039), total touchdowns responsible for (65) and total points responsible for (392) in a single campaign.

The debate will always rage on, but these stats offer a pretty clear picture on who the two most dominant teams of the decade-long CFP era are.

Austen Bundy

Austen Bundy is a journalist and sports junkie from the Washington, D. C. area

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