The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Ohio State Buckeyes have advanced to the College Football Playoff National Championship game.
The No. 7-seed Fighting Irish defeated the Indiana Hoosiers, Georgia Bulldogs, and Penn State Nittany Lions to reach this point, while the No. 8-seed Buckeyes punched their ticket by taking down the Tennessee Volunteers, Oregon Ducks, and Texas Longhorns.
Here’s everything you need to know about tonight’s showdown, including how to watch, when the game starts, the top NFL Draft prospects to watch, and more.
How To Watch the Ohio State-Notre Dame National Championship Game
- Location: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta
- Date: Monday, Jan. 20
- Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
- Channel: ESPN
Notre Dame hasn’t won a national title since 1988. They came close in 2012 but fell short against Alabama in the BCS National Championship matchup.
Meanwhile, it’s been a decade since the Buckeyes have won a national championship. In 2014, Ohio State won the inaugural CFP National Championship.
Either Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman or Ohio State head coach Ryan Day will win his first national championship as a head coach.
The tournament began with 12 teams, and the champions of the highest-ranked conferences took the first five spots, with the remaining seven going to various top teams.
Both of these teams dealt with plenty of ups and downs throughout this season, but now one of Ohio State or Notre Dame will be crowned national champions.
NFL Draft Prospects to Watch at CFP National Championship Game
This game features quite a few top 2025 NFL Draft prospects, so let’s use PFN’s Mock Draft Simulator to evaluate the top players in this game based on their current average draft position in the MDS.
Ohio State WR Emeka Egbuka
- Current ADP: 19.4
Emeka Egbuka is one of the most exciting utility WRs to hit the circuit in recent years. And when you run Egbuka’s profile through the three-level threat framework, his physical tools and his projected versatility begin to shine.
As an athlete, Egbuka is extremely explosive, fluid, and flexible, with more than enough vertical speed. He can sear and slice his way through zone coverage looks but also has the intentional movement, snappy suddenness, and spatial awareness to win against man coverage.
Though he isn’t quite as consistent at the catch point, Egbuka has flashed the skills of a fairly instinctive converter with good reaction speed and body control, and he also has an ideal RAC profile with his lean 205-pound frame, explosiveness, and agility.
Overall, Egbuka has the feel of a solid three-level threat WR with exciting alignment and usage versatility. Coaches can scheme him touches on jet sweeps, swings, drags, screens, and other short routes. But he also has the full route tree and complete skill set to be employed in countless other ways.
Notre Dame CB Benjamin Morrison
Current ADP: 30.2
The public service announcement for opposing quarterbacks is this: Test Benjamin Morrison at your own risk.
You often hear the term “sticky” used in the presence of true lockdown cornerbacks, and that’s what Morrison has the traits to become. He has an elite combination of initial explosiveness and hip fluidity, and his hyperactive agility and twitch make him nearly impossible to shake.
Morrison’s recovery framework is out of this world, and it’s made more potent by his technical efficiency and variability, as well as his ability to plant and drive from either foot. Once he’s in position, Morrison is a born disruptor with exhaustive ball skills, willing physicality, and second-nature tracking ability.
Overall, Morrison is an elite physical talent with sharp processing ability and playmaking chops who, in spite of his middling size, has impressive feistiness, both in coverage and support. He’ll have to continue adding mass to his frame, but he’s a scheme-versatile CB prospect with All-Pro upside and lockdown potential in man.
Ohio State DT Tyleik Williams
- Current ADP: 30.4
Tyleik Williams is extremely athletic, productive, and well-sized, plus his unique alignment versatility is a quality few in the 2025 NFL Draft class can match. Williams is one of the most unique DT prospects to hit the circuit in recent years. He’s every bit of 327 pounds at 6’2″. And yet, he carries that mass with effortless ease, exploding off blocks and freely stunting across alignments with his burst, lateral agility, foot quickness, and range.
Williams effectively uses his mass, lower body strength, and natural pad level to encumber offensive linemen, absorb combo blocks, and minimize movement at the point of attack in the run game, and he also has the power element and point-of-attack strength to slab tackles at 5-tech.
Beyond his all-around, alignment-diverse run utility, Williams is also an exciting pass rusher. He can be used as a battering ram on stunts with his explosiveness, mass, and power, but he also has the active hands to win 1-on-1 and pry his way through gaps.
Ohio State OG Donovan Jackson
- Current ADP: 47.4
At around 6’4″, 320 pounds, with near-36″ arms, Jackson has a picture-perfect combination of natural leverage, mass, and proportional length, which he combines with elite explosive athleticism off the line. He’s strong, powerful, athletic, and rangy, and all of those traits bode well.
Past his physical foundation, Jackson has proven himself to be a very promising pass protector. He regularly maintains synergy with a wide base and tight hands, and he can use his lateral mobility to match and wall off rushers while using independent hands to gather.
Going further, Jackson also has upside as a run blocker. He gets off the line with energy and can use his range to wash over defenders while driving through with his full power output. He also has the awareness and football IQ to maintain angles and stack blocks.
Ohio State EDGE J.T. Tuimoloau
- Current ADP: 49.9
There’s no denying the talent with Tuimoloau. He’s a former five-star recruit with elite explosive capacity at 6’4″, 277 pounds.
His combination of size and burst grants him dominating power capacity, alignment flexibility, and stance versatility. And when properly applied, his power can bowl over opposing tackles and suffocate quarterbacks of space.
Beyond his physical foundation, Tuimoloau is also a stalwart run defender with impressive strength, quickness, and angle IQ, and a productive, instinctive playmaker on the football.
Notre Dame S Xavier Watts
Current ADP: 53.3
There are few players I’m more confident in being a decade-long NFL starter in this class than Xavier Watts. He engulfs runners with impressive form-tackling ability. His knack for being in the right place at the right time to receive the ball from opposing passers may appear accidental at times, but it stems from being assignment sound. Watts has no weaknesses in his game.
His quick trigger gets him downhill quickly to jump-crossing routes, and he has enough fluidity and understanding of route dangers at different depths to keep him sticky in man coverage. The only thing keeping him from being a Day 1 player is lackluster size and athleticism. It may limit his draft potential, but we’ve seen countless “average” athletes flourish on the back end of NFL defenses. Watts will be no exception. He’s going to make a team very happy.
Honorable Mention
- Ohio State EDGE Jack Sawyer (64.0 ADP)
- Ohio State RB Quinshon Judkins (64.9 ADP)
- Ohio State CB Davison Igbinosun (66.9 ADP)
- Ohio State RB TreVeyon Henderson (69.5 ADP)
- Ohio State CB Denzel Burke (70.2 ADP)
- Notre Dame TE Mitchell Evans (97.0 ADP)
