Ohio State, Notre Dame to meet for title, long after upset losses

Two upset losses stood out among the rest in college football this season. Notre Dame suffered one of them. Ohio State the other.

In years past, those losses might have been enough to knock both teams out of the hunt for a national title. This year, with the debut of the 12-team playoff, those two teams will play for it.

The Buckeyes beat Texas 28-14 on Friday night to set up a Jan. 20 meeting against the Fighting Irish. Ohio State hasn't lost since it fell 13-10 to Michigan in November. Notre Dame hasn't lost since it fell 16-14 to Northern Illinois way back in September.

Ohio State is in search of its sixth AP national title, ninth overall, and its first since the College Football Playoff debuted in 2014 with a four-team playoff. Notre Dame is going for its 12th championship, but its first since 1988.

This Big Ten vs. independent matchup means this is the second straight year that the Southeastern Conference will be shut out of the final after winning the championship in six of the previous eight years.

Ohio State opens as a 9 1/2-point favorite according to BetMGM. Ohio State won meetings in 2022 and 2023 and leads the series 6-2.

The losses this season helped set the tone for both teams as they embarked on the sort of comeback that might not have been possible in years past.

"The time you’re tested the most is when you’re at your lowest point,” said Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman, who will become the first Black coach to capture the national title with a win. “We lose to Northern Illinois and you’ve got a decision: ‘Do I want to be selfless? Or am I going to put individual glory ahead of myself?’”

Ohio State coach Ryan Day said the Michigan game is “what life's all about.”

“You have to go through adversity along the way, and how you handle adversity is how you define life, and these guys are going through life lessons right now,” Day said.

The game will pit Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard against Ohio State's Will Howard, each of whom are in their first year at their schools after entering the transfer portal after last season.

Though there was NIL money involved, both players said they moved to schools to try to win a title.

“The truth is, I came here to win a national championship, and to go to the best team that would give me the best chance to do that,” said Riley, who moved to Notre Dame from Duke.

“I had a list of things I was looking for, in terms of needing to go somewhere where there was a lot of talent around me and somewhere I could compete for a national championship," Howard told ESPN last year, not long after he made the move from Kansas State.

It felt right that the nation's best defense turned an opponent's first-and-goal from its 1 into a touchdown of its own. That's how Ohio State wrapped up its win Friday night — a fitting exclamation point for a team that leads the country in both yards and points allowed.

Notre Dame is good on ‘D,' too. The Fighting Irish allow the ninth-fewest yards and also rank third in turnover differential even after losing that battle in the win over Penn State.

Leonard has been figuring out ways to win in the playoffs using his arms and legs, but other than a fourth-quarter flurry against a big, fast Penn State defense, the fighting Irish offense has plodded through the quarters and semifinals. Also worth monitoring is the status of left tackle Anthonie Knapp, who left Thursday's game early.

Give credit where it's due. While the first two rounds of playoff action featured a steady stream of boring blowouts, the semifinal games were fun and close.

Still, when the worse seed wins every game in the final eight and final four, something is amiss.

In the case of these playoffs, the answer seems obvious. The byes handed out to conference champions, all of whom lost in the quarterfinals, distorted the rankings and jumbled the bracket.

Ohio State's dismantling of top seed Oregon and Notre Dame's win over No. 2 Georgia (without its quarterback) removed any doubt that some great team got cheated solely by the bracket. It might have also shown that, brackets aside, there are many good but no great teams now that NIL and the transfer portal are in full swing.

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Texas quarterback Arch Manning, middle left, shakes hands with Ohio State quarterback Will Howard after the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal game, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

People celebrate after Ohio State defeated Texas in the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal game, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Ohio State running back Quinshon Judkins (1) reacts after scoring a touchdown against Texas during the second half of the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal game, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day celebrates after the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal game against Texas, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Ohio State quarterback Will Howard (18) and defensive end Jack Sawyer (33) celebrate after the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal game against Texas, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

A group of Buddhist monks and their rescue dog are striding single file down country roads and highways across the South, captivating Americans nationwide and inspiring droves of locals to greet them along their route.

In their flowing saffron and ocher robes, the men are walking for peace. It's a meditative tradition more common in South Asian countries, and it's resonating now in the U.S., seemingly as a welcome respite from the conflict, trauma and politics dividing the nation.

Their journey began Oct. 26, 2025, at a Vietnamese Buddhist temple in Texas, and is scheduled to end in mid-February in Washington, D.C., where they will ask Congress to recognize Buddha’s day of birth and enlightenment as a federal holiday. Beyond promoting peace, their highest priority is connecting with people along the way.

“My hope is, when this walk ends, the people we met will continue practicing mindfulness and find peace,” said the Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, the group’s soft-spoken leader who is making the trek barefoot. He teaches about mindfulness, forgiveness and healing at every stop.

Preferring to sleep each night in tents pitched outdoors, the monks have been surprised to see their message transcend ideologies, drawing huge crowds into churchyards, city halls and town squares across six states. Documenting their journey on social media, they — and their dog, Aloka — have racked up millions of followers online. On Saturday, thousands thronged in Columbia, South Carolina, where the monks chanted on the steps of the State House and received a proclamation from the city's mayor, Daniel Rickenmann.

At their stop Thursday in Saluda, South Carolina, Audrie Pearce joined the crowd lining Main Street. She had driven four hours from her village of Little River, and teared up as Pannakara handed her a flower.

“There’s something traumatic and heart-wrenching happening in our country every day,” said Pearce, who describes herself as spiritual, but not religious. “I looked into their eyes and I saw peace. They’re putting their bodies through such physical torture and yet they radiate peace.”

Hailing from Theravada Buddhist monasteries across the globe, the 19 monks began their 2,300 mile (3,700 kilometer) trek at the Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth.

Their journey has not been without peril. On Nov. 19, as the monks were walking along U.S. Highway 90 near Dayton, Texas, their escort vehicle was hit by a distracted truck driver, injuring two monks. One of them lost his leg, reducing the group to 18.

This is Pannakara's first trek in the U.S., but he's walked across several South Asian countries, including a 112-day journey across India in 2022 where he first encountered Aloka, an Indian Pariah dog whose name means divine light in Sanskrit.

Then a stray, the dog followed him and other monks from Kolkata in eastern India all the way to the Nepal border. At one point, he fell critically ill and Pannakara scooped him up in his arms and cared for him until he recovered. Now, Aloka inspires him to keep going when he feels like giving up.

“I named him light because I want him to find the light of wisdom,” Pannakara said.

The monk's feet are now heavily bandaged because he's stepped on rocks, nails and glass along the way. His practice of mindfulness keeps him joyful despite the pain from these injuries, he said.

Still, traversing the southeast United States has presented unique challenges, and pounding pavement day after day has been brutal.

“In India, we can do shortcuts through paddy fields and farms, but we can’t do that here because there are a lot of private properties,” Pannakara said. “But what’s made it beautiful is how people have welcomed and hosted us in spite of not knowing who we are and what we believe.”

In Opelika, Alabama, the Rev. Patrick Hitchman-Craig hosted the monks on Christmas night at his United Methodist congregation.

He expected to see a small crowd, but about 1,000 people showed up, creating the feel of a block party. The monks seemed like the Magi, he said, appearing on Christ’s birthday.

“Anyone who is working for peace in the world in a way that is public and sacrificial is standing close to the heart of Jesus, whether or not they share our tradition,” said Hitchman-Craig. “I was blown away by the number of people and the diversity of who showed up.”

After their night on the church lawn, the monks arrived the next afternoon at the Collins Farm in Cusseta, Alabama. Judy Collins Allen, whose father and brother run the farm, said about 200 people came to meet the monks — the biggest gathering she’s ever witnessed there.

“There was a calm, warmth and sense of community among people who had not met each other before and that was so special,” she said.

Long Si Dong, a spokesperson for the Fort Worth temple, said the monks, when they arrive in Washington, plan to seek recognition of Vesak, the day which marks the birth and enlightenment of the Buddha, as a national holiday.

“Doing so would acknowledge Vesak as a day of reflection, compassion and unity for all people regardless of faith,” he said.

But Pannakara emphasized that their main goal is to help people achieve peace in their lives. The trek is also a separate endeavor from a $200 million campaign to build towering monuments on the temple’s 14-acre property to house the Buddha’s teachings engraved in stone, according to Dong.

The monks practice and teach Vipassana meditation, an ancient Indian technique taught by the Buddha himself as core for attaining enlightenment. It focuses on the mind-body connection — observing breath and physical sensations to understand reality, impermanence and suffering. Some of the monks, including Pannakara, walk barefoot to feel the ground directly and be present in the moment.

Pannakara has told the gathered crowds that they don't aim to convert people to Buddhism.

Brooke Schedneck, professor of religion at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, said the tradition of a peace walk in Theravada Buddhism began in the 1990s when the Venerable Maha Ghosananda, a Cambodian monk, led marches across war-torn areas riddled with landmines to foster national healing after civil war and genocide in his country.

“These walks really inspire people and inspire faith,” Schedneck said. “The core intention is to have others watch and be inspired, not so much through words, but through how they are willing to make this sacrifice by walking and being visible.”

On Thursday, Becki Gable drove nearly 400 miles (about 640 kilometers) from Cullman, Alabama, to catch up with them in Saluda. Raised Methodist, Gable said she wanted some release from the pain of losing her daughter and parents.

“I just felt in my heart that this would help me have peace,” she said. “Maybe I could move a little bit forward in my life.”

Gable says she has already taken one of Pannakara’s teachings to heart. She’s promised herself that each morning, as soon as she awakes, she’d take a piece of paper and write five words on it, just as the monk prescribed.

“Today is my peaceful day.”

Freelance photojournalist Allison Joyce contributed to this report.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Buddhist monks who are participating in the, "Walk For Peace," get lunch Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Saluda, S.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce)

Aloka rests with Buddhist monks who are participating in the, "Walk For Peace," Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Saluda, S.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce)

A sign is seen greeting the Buddhist monks who are participating in the, "Walk For Peace," Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Saluda, S.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce)

Supporters pray with Buddhist monks who are participating in the, "Walk For Peace," Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Saluda, S.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce)

Supporters watch Buddhist monks who are participating in the, "Walk For Peace," Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Saluda, S.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce)

A Buddhist monk ties a prayer bracelet around the wrist of Josey Lee, 2-months-old, during the, "Walk For Peace," Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Saluda, S.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce)

Bhikkhu Pannakara, a spiritual leader, speaks to supporters during the, "Walk For Peace," Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Saluda, S.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce)

Buddhist monks participate in the, "Walk For Peace," Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Saluda, S.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce)

Buddhist monks participate in the, "Walk For Peace," Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Saluda, S.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce)

Bhikkhu Pannakara leads other buddhist monks in the, "Walk For Peace," Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Saluda, S.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce)

Audrie Pearce greets Buddhist monks who are participating in the, "Walk For Peace," Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Saluda, S.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce)

Bhikkhu Pannakara, a spiritual leader, speaks to supporters during the, "Walk For Peace," Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Saluda, S.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce)

Buddhist monks who are participating in the, "Walk For Peace," arrive in Saluda, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Saluda, S.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce)

Buddhist monks who are participating in the, "Walk For Peace," are seen with their dog, Aloka, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Saluda, S.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce)