Ohio State entered the Goodyear Cotton Bowl on December 31, 2025 as the defending national champion, the No. 2 seed, and a nine-and-a-half point favorite. Miami, the No. 10 seed and a team many argued did not belong in the bracket, led 14-0 before the first quarter was over and won 24-14.

The play everyone remembers

Early in the second quarter, Julian Sayin threw a quick screen to his left. Keionte Scott had been reading it. He jumped the route, caught it clean, and had nothing but open field for 72 yards. It was his second pick-six of the season — both of his interceptions that year went back for touchdowns — and it made the score 14-0.

Sayin, a Heisman finalist, finished with two interceptions and was sacked five times. Miami's front had been the story of the Hurricanes' postseason, and it did not let up.

How a 14-point hole became fatal

Ohio State had not played since December 6, when it lost 13-10 to Indiana in a Big Ten Championship Game between undefeated teams. The Buckeyes received a first-round bye, then spent 25 days waiting. They came out flat, and head coach Ryan Day said afterward the start was on him.

The second half was better. Ohio State scored on its opening drive, then went 75 yards in 10 plays, with Sayin finding freshman Jeremiah Smith for a 14-yard touchdown on fourth-and-2. Smith finished with 141 yards on six catches. But a critical fourth-quarter drive stalled, slowed by the first accepted penalty of the entire game, and the Buckeyes punted.

Ohio State allowed more than 20 points in a game for the first time since its national championship win the previous January.

The bye-week pattern

This was the sixth quarterfinal in the 12-team format, and the sixth time the team coming off a first-round bye lost. Across those six games, teams with the bye had held the lead for under five minutes of regulation combined.

The streak broke later in the same round when Indiana beat Alabama 38-3 in the Rose Bowl — but the pattern is now a genuine strategic question for the format. Whether the reward for a top-four seed is worth the layoff has been argued in every offseason since.

Miami's method

Carson Beck went 19 of 26 for 138 yards and a touchdown, including a stretch of 13 consecutive completions that set a Cotton Bowl record in the game's 90th edition. Mark Fletcher Jr. ran 19 times for 90 yards against a defense that had been among the nation's best, lost a first-quarter fumble, and was named offensive MVP anyway. CharMar Brown scored the closing touchdown.

Nothing about it was spectacular. Miami ran the ball, converted downs, and let the defense do the rest — the same formula that had produced a 10-3 first-round win over Texas A&M.

Why it mattered

The win ended Ohio State's bid to become the first Buckeyes team to win back-to-back national titles. It also made Miami the first double-digit seed to reach a Playoff semifinal, and it was the program's most significant victory since the 2001 national championship season.

Mario Cristobal's sideline in Arlington included Michael Irvin, Ray Lewis and Jimmy Johnson. For a program that had spent two decades trading on a past it could not replicate, the Cotton Bowl was the night the present caught up.

Miami went on to beat Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl before losing the national championship to Indiana at home, 27-21.