At a meeting with congressional leaders on Tuesday, President Obama congratulated The Ohio State University football team for winning Monday’s game against the Oregon Ducks. The underdog Buckeyes beat Oregon 42-20 to take the title of the first College Football Playoff National Championship.
Obama, who was seated next to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) in the meeting, said, “To the speaker, I just want to point out I said there are going to be some things that we agree on.”
He then reminded everyone that the national championship was basically his idea. “Having a college football playoff is clearly something that we can agree on. I called for it when I came into office.”
In a 2008 “60 Minutes” interview with Steve Kroft, then President-elect Obama laid out some of his priorities, including his ideas for a change in the way college football is organized. “If you’ve got a bunch of teams who play throughout the season, and many of them have one loss or two losses, there’s no clear decisive winner. We should be creating a playoff system,” Obama told Kroft.
“I don’t know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this,” Obama said in the 2008 interview. “So, I’m going to throw my weight around a little bit. I think it’s the right thing to do.”
During his meeting with congressional leaders Tuesday, President Obama also congratulated the Oregon Ducks on their fine season and made a point to note that Oregon’s Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Marcus Mariota is from his home state of Hawaii.
“So I want to congratulate the Ohio State Buckeyes for their outstanding victory and commend Oregon as well for fielding a great team because their quarterback is from my original home state of Hawaii.”
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