Radio host John Ziegler has many opinions. While some may disagree, others flock to hear what he says next.
This wasn’t more evident than after the national championship game between Ohio State and Notre Dame became official. Ziegler wrote on ‘X’ that the game ruined the sport of college football and its current iteration.
“Congratulations, everyone who wanted this 12-team playoff, you somehow managed to make the two biggest upset losses of the regular season COMPLETELY meaningless, and probably helpful to the teams which got beat,” Ziegler posted Friday night. “Oh, and neither finalist even played a conference title game.”
The tweet has since become a viral sensation, with over seven million impressions, a thousand-plus retweets, and angry college football fans attempting to counter-argue Ziegler’s thoughts.
With its exponential growth, Ziegler attempted to clarify his comments in a follow-up tweet, which became ugly.
“Not only have I gotten an insane amount of hate from people responding to this rather moderate post, I have even had idiots trying to direct message me with hate,” Ziegler wrote.”Bizarre!”
Ziegler replied to a select few, accusing some of failing to understand how college football works.
Whichever the case, Ziegler got the attention he wanted. People will watch the championship game with their beliefs and thoughts about whether the sport is meant to be geared toward entertainment value, if the Buckeyes or Fighting Irish deserve to win, or for an entirely different reason.
As for the game itself, Ohio State can give the Big Ten back-to-back titles while attempting to save coach Ryan Day’s job. Meanwhile, Notre Dame tries to win a championship for the first time since 1988, proving that Independent FBS football can win at the highest level.
The game, which will be carried by ESPN and start at 7:30 p.m. ET in Atlanta, Ga., will likely become an instant classic regardless of the outcome.
Whether Ziegler keeps stirring the pot however remains to be seen.