The inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff has led to a national championship game between two teams who would not have qualified for the old four-team format. On Monday night in Atlanta, the seventh-seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish will face the eighth-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes at Mercedes-Benz Stadium with a national title on the line.
Both Notre Dame and Ohio State survived bad losses this season, the Irish falling to Northern Illinois in Week 2 and the Buckeyes dropping their regular season finale at home to Michigan, but the expanded CFP format allowed both teams a shot at redemption. Notre Dame knocked off Indiana in South Bend in the first round, took down No. 2 seed Georgia in the Sugar Bowl quarterfinal, and then advanced past Penn State with a last-minute field goal to secure an Orange Bowl semifinal victory. On the other side, Ohio State bludgeoned Tennessee, stomped Oregon in the Rose Bowl, and thanks to a heroic strip-sack touchdown by senior defensive end Jack Sawyer, escaped a close game with Texas in the Cotton Bowl semifinal.
Despite both teams taking similar paths, the Buckeyes are big favorites to win it all, though ESPN and Fighting Irish fans alike are rooting for a much closer result. Here’s a look at the announcing crew for the first-ever 12-team CFP National Championship Game:
Who are the announcers for Ohio State vs. Notre Dame in the CFP National Championship?
Play-by-play announcer Chris Fowler and color analyst Kirk Herbstreit will lead the ESPN crew in Atlanta on Monday night. The famous duo will be joined on the sidelines by Holly Rowe and Molly McGrath. This is the fourth time that Fowler and Herbstreit are assigned to a game with Ohio State in the CFP, following the Buckeyes from Columbus to Pasadena to Arlington and now to Atlanta.