Valentina Martinez: The Buckeyes and Fighting Irish are set to face off in the College Football Playoff National Championship. This game is a tale of two defenses, but Ohio State will take home the glory. Ricardo Sandoval: The championship match is as highly profiled as one can be while also being one that no one expected.

But evolution is also a choice. The dinosaurs didn't have to walk into the tar pits. And college football programs -- even old-timers such as Ohio State and Notre Dame -- don't have to walk into the quicksand of mediocrity, led there by the blinders of obligation to keep on keeping on the same way that Knute Rockne and Woody Hayes did.

Monday will mark the first-ever meeting between Ohio State and Notre Dame football in a football national championship game.