A few notes scribbled on the back of a napkin while doing the math for how many days until kickoff of the 2025 college football season.

That’s it, Ohio State proved the point.

The ultimate 2024 team is now the national champion, riding the NIL wave and then using the mulligan an expanded 12-team field allowed. Its 34-23 win over a remarkably likable and resilient Notre Dame team capped a revolutionary season on a perfect note.

The Buckeyes were led by a quarterback from Kansas State, got three touchdowns from a running back from Mississippi, but clinched the win the old-fashioned way. A 57-yard pass to non-transfer/true freshman Jeremiah Smith effectively ended the 2024 college football season on the 20th day of 2025.

A head coach fans wanted fired just weeks ago.

A team embarrassed by its biggest rival to close the regular season.

But this was a modern moment, one with a price tag.

Like $20 million.

That’s reportedly the NIL bounty paid by Ohio State boosters to legally engineer a roster fit to be kings.

They plucked Pike Road product Quinshon Judkins from the clutches of the Mississippi NIL machine, Caleb Downs from the aftermath of Nick Saban’s retirement and Will Howard from rural Manhattan to answer its rival.

Recall Michigan’s NIL blitz was the catalyst to winning last year’s national title by backing up the Brinks truck to retain its senior class.

And while it’s too simplistic to say Ohio State bought a national championship, it certainly made a respectable down payment. They still had to do the work and navigate four playoff games, but the transfers OSU landed were the difference between being the biggest postseason underachievers of the past decade and a definitive national champion Monday.

Since winning the 2014 national title, Ohio State lost no more than two games for the next decade but appeared in only one championship game.

The Buckeyes in 2024 were unquestionably the best team in the sport.

Perhaps that’s why Alabama AD Greg Byrne is rattling a coffee cup to beg the fanbase for more NIL cash. Where sustained so-called dynasties don’t seem to fit the current state of play, one-year cash infusions can yield serious results.

It’s not guaranteed, though.

Ask Lane Kiffin.

The year Mississippi cash flowed through the transfer portal, it saw an outgoing star claim the prize that the program hadn’t sniffed in decades. This was supposed to be the year Kiffin could break through, but his former running back was hoisting the trophy for the Buckeyes instead.

Judkins ran for 100 yards and two touchdowns while catching another.

Downs had five solo tackles.

Another Alabama transfer, Seth McLaughlin, got a ring along with the 2024 Rimington Trophy as the nation’s best center despite going down with a season-ending injury late in the year.

Back-to-back rivals

As mentioned, Ohio State had the perfect answer to Michigan’s 2023 national title by winning the 2024 version. Impressive run for one of the nation’s best rivalries.

Now it’s on Michigan to equal the Iron Bowl run from 1.5 decades ago. Alabama and Auburn swapped titles in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Only a 2014 last-second Florida State touchdown ended a streak that would have hit five straight for the Crimson Tide and Tigers.

Speaking of the Iron Bowl

Ohio State equaled a feat by the 2017 Alabama national champs on Monday night.

It claimed a national title in the same season it lost an ugly game to its arch-enemy, pairing a 13-10 loss to Michigan with a successful playoff run. Alabama in 2017 took a 26-14 loss in Jordan-Hare Stadium but famously made the playoff as the No. 4 seed (over No. 5 Ohio State).

That season also ended in Atlanta with the Crimson Tide beating Georgia in overtime on a play known as 2nd-and-26.

Incredible effort from Fairhope’s Leonard

It ended in defeat but the game played by Fairhope product Riley Leonard shouldn’t be forgotten. The QB who transferred from Duke to Notre Dame had a season-high 255 passing yards by completing 22 of 31 throws with two touchdowns.

He also led one of the most impressive drives of the season. Notre Dame opened the game with an 18-play, 75-yard march that chewed nearly 10 minutes off the clock. It involved a steady diet of Leonard’s bowling-ball rushing attack as he ran it on nine of the 18 snaps. He netted 34 yards on those mostly straight-ahead runs, including a 1-yard touchdown run.

It was his right arm and Jaden Greathouse who led the comeback after Notre Dame trailed 31-7 at one point. Leonard was 17-for-23 passing in the second half with 209 yards and two scores to Greathouse to get the Irish as close as eight points late in the fourth quarter.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.