There’s a lot Urban Meyer has done at Columbus worth putting up an applause for. For starters, he has a perfect 7-streak unbeaten record against Michigan. He is also a National Championship winner, leading the Buckeyes to their 2014 title, 12 years after the preceding one. It’s been seven years since Meyer left OSU football. But he still holds one interesting record that will likely remain with him until 2030.

Urban Meyer always came close to making the National title throughout his run with Ohio State. He reached the most important peak in this tenure on D-Day of the 2014 season – the National Championship game against Oregon. Not only did Meyer script his name into OSU history after that magnificent 42-20 win, but he also broke a huge record. To this day, this game remains the most-attended National Championship clash ever. Held in the iconic AT&T Stadium in Texas, this game pulled a whopping 85,689 guests to watch the game live. And, surprisingly, Meyer will be holding on to this record till the end of this decade.

Here’s how this situation pans out. Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium will be hosting the Natty contenders for 2026 and 2030. Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium takes up 2027. Caeser’s Superdome is officially booked for 2028, On3 announced recently. AT&T will host the 2029 edition. Save for AT&T, none of the other venues can even match the attendance because of their capacity. Hard Rock can host a maximum of 65,326 seated guests, Allegiant hosts 65,000, but can go up to 70,000 and more on special events. Caeser’s Superdome can host 74,295 seated guests. These numbers are nowhere close to the audience that saw the iconic game pan out in front of them.

But there is a small catch here. The Nattys, in 2029, go back to the very venue that saw Meyer claim this record. AT&T has a maximum capacity of 80,000. But when standing, this venue can host more than 100,000. However, it was only a showdown as epic as Ohio State vs Oregon that pulled such a huge crowd. It seems likely that Urban Meyer will still hold on to the record after 2029, considering how high the stakes have to be. For example, Ohio State vs Texas sparred off in the semi-final of the 2024 season in this venue. But it could only pull a crowd of 74,527. Maybe, only if Ohio State returns to AT&T in 2029 as a CFP finalist, Urban Meyer might have to let go of the record.

“This will go down as one of the great stories in college football history,” Meyer said after the momentous win in this iconic game. He did it with Cardale Jones, the backup-to-backup QB leading the charge. And RB Ezekiel Elliott went berserk in the field, hauling in 4 touchdowns. Meyer lost Heisman-contending QB Braxton Miller and JT Barrett before this game. OSU even lost to Virginia Tech early in the season. But the Buckeyes fought on, culminating in the first Natty win of the CFP era. And this was also against a strong Oregon squad, which was led by Heisman finalist Marcus Mariota.

It was an outright clash of the titans. That’s the theme for a National Championship game if it has to break Urban Meyer’s record. Interestingly, the veteran coach seems to be on a pattern here.  This 2015 clash also tops the leaderboard in another interesting stat.

Urban Meyer also holds another record

Urban Meyer wasn’t just part of the largest Natty attendance on the ground. In fact, this National Championship clash also holds the record of the most-watched title game ever. A whopping 34.1 million viewers tuned in to watch Ohio State take on an elite Oregon on January 12, 2015. Ryan Day has a long way to go in meeting his predecessor in this stat as well. The 2024 National Championship had the 9th highest TV viewership for a Natty game, at 22.1 million viewers.

Running a 30-second ad during the game was costing $1 million alone – that’s how important this clash was. Ohio State, despite losing its most crucial pieces to the season, was hoping to win another National Title after 12 long years. But that hope prevailed. The crowds chanted Hang On Sloopy to keep the morale up, while millions watched from home. OSU fans must’ve cancelled plans to focus on praying for their beloved team on this memorable day.

Ohio State’s last Natty win also followed this one after 12 years. But Urban Meyer’s relentless fight to bring glory to one of the most tiered programs outweighs the 2024 win. Ryan Day will have to pull off something astronomical to even get into the range of being able to dethrone Meyer from these two stats.