College Football Playoff: Ohio State learns first-round opponent, site

>>RECAP: Buckeyes rally from 14 down to win Big Ten Championship game

No. 1 LSU will play No. 4 Oklahoma in the Peach Bowl the same day, and the winners will square off in New Orleans for the national championship Jan. 13.

Ohio State’s last playoff appearance was also in the Fiesta Bowl against Clemson, and it did not go well for the Buckeyes.

The Tigers won 31-0 three years ago then went on to upset Alabama in the national championship game.

Ohio State is 6-2 in the Fiesta Bowl and also played in and lost the 2007 BCS National Championship game in Arizona.

The Buckeyes have lost three of their past four trips to the desert, including the white-washing by the Tigers to end the 2017 season.

That is a game burned into the brains of many Ohio State fans, and one some current Buckeyes were a part of.

“It was rough,” fifth-year senior defensive tackle Robert “BB” Landers recalled Sunday. “That was my first season actually playing and I just remember we put in so much hard work and especially with the group of guys we had and we just fell short. So we asked the question, ‘What did we not do. What do we take from this?’

“We just didn’t play the way we wanted to or that we should have. It’s one of those moments I’ll never forget, but at the end of the day it’s history

“Time to write a new chapter.”

The Buckeyes are 2-1 in CFP games, beating Alabama and Oregon to win the title in 2014.

Clemson is in the CFP for the fifth time while Oklahoma is in for the fourth time, and LSU is making its first appearance.

Ohio State was ranked No. 1 in the standings the past two weeks as well as earlier in the year. They lost their hold on it this time around despite holding serve against Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game on Saturday night.

That 34-21 victory over the Badgers was not enough to prevent LSU from moving back to the top of the standings after those Tigers trounced then-No. 4 Georgia 37-10 earlier Saturday.

Ohio State Coach Ryan Day confirmed he was disappointed the Buckeyes were not ranked No. 1 when all was said and done but hoped to move on quickly to preparing for the defending national champions.

“I know we're just proud of what our guys have done,” Day said. “We’ve been done everything we can up to this point, and now it's time to go play Clemson. I think at this point you can't look back on those kind of things and we can go back and forth about it, and I know those guys had a hard decision to make. They made it, and we've got to move on.

“We can't worry about that. Again, if we want to go win the whole thing, we have to be able to play everybody, so now we've got a chance to go play Clemson.”