Cotton Bowl Preview: Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Texas Longhorns

The Ohio State Buckeyes and Texas Longhorns will battle it out in the Cotton Bowl on Friday, January 10, 2025, with a kickoff scheduled to take place on primetime under the lights at 7:30 PM. This game is scheduled to take place from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, making this a basic home game for the Longhorns.

Our friends at Bookmaker have listed the Ohio State as 6 point favorites in this game, with the total on the over/under sitting at 53 points. This line has gone up from 4.5 which is where it was on Monday.  

The winner of this game will move on to the finals of the 2025 College Football Playoffs and face the winner of Penn State vs. Notre Dame in the National Championship game on January 20, 2025.

Texas Longhorns Cotton Bowl Preview

The Texas Longhorns have not had an easy time making it here but they are here regardless. They are coming in off a overtime win against Arizona State Sun Devils by the score of 39-31.

Their only 2 losses were against Georgia in the regular season and also in the SEC Championship game. Georgia lost their bowl game to Notre Dame last week so the credibility combined with their schedule this year, doesn’t leave much confidence in their ability to beat Ohio State.

This is a dream come true for Texas QB Quinn Ewers, who gets a chance to play 20 minutes from where he went to high school at Southlake Carroll in Texas. He has never faced the Buckeyes, and also has never really faced a defense the caliber of the Buckeyes.

Ohio State Buckeyes Cotton Bowl Preview

The Ohio State Buckeyes were one of the teams that were talked about prior to making the bracket but they’ve put all the questions to rest about if they are deserving. The Buckeyes lost to the Michigan Wolverines to end their regular season and that called for Ryan Day’s job.

But Day and the Buckeyes have shut up all doubters. They beat up on Tennessee 42-17 and then came back and beat Oregon by the score of 41-21. They now get to prove more doubters wrong by facing the former #1 team in the country, the Texas Longhorns.

Handicapping the Cotton Bowl

This game has many angles in which you can look and lean on. Ohio State’s QB Will Howard may have the inability to beat Texas. Howard transfered to Ohio State from Kansas State, where he went 0-4 vs. Texas.

Texas QB Quinn Ewers started his career at Ohio State but transfered to Texas, his hometown team.  

So, there is a lot on the line but Ohio State is the better team on both sides of the ball. Texas allowed Arizona State to manhandle them in the 2nd half of the game. If they allow that with the Buckeyes, they will find themselves in real trouble! Taking the Buckeyes here -6 at Bookmaker.

Pick: Ohio State -6