2015 CFP National Championship Game Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.5
Audio		1.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

2015 CFP National Championship Game Blu-ray Movie Review

A college football game literally plopped onto Blu-ray.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 28, 2015

Team Marketing has released several college football games to Blu-ray, each covering the best and most important of the 2014 Bowl season. The games are presented without commercial interruption and are, essentially, the television broadcasts transferred onto Blu-ray. This one, the 2015 National Championship, represents a first in college football history: a national champion decided by way of a playoff game, replacing the controversial "Bowl Championship Series." The game saw the fourth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes and Sophomore Quarterback Cardale Jones, replacing the injured J. T. Barrett, take on the second-ranked Oregon Ducks and the 2014 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, Marcus Mariota. The game was played at AT&T Stadium (home of the Dallas Cowboys, a.k.a. "Jerry World") in Arlington, Texas, on January 12, 2015.

We did it!

Both teams ended the season with identical 13-1 records. The soaring Ducks, with Heisman winner Marcus Mariota at the helm, were considered by many as the favorites to emerge victorious in the first-ever one-and-done college football playoff game to determine the national champion. The Buckeyes, fresh off an upset of the perennial powerhouse squad from Alabama, continued to play with a heavy heart, mourning the loss of defensive lineman Kosta Karageorge, who committed suicide earlier in the season. Both teams flexed their muscles in the earlier playoff games, scoring a combined 101 points en route to their trips to Arlington. Would offense determine the champion, or would the teams' defenses hold firm and keep the scoreboard from overloading for a third straight playoff game?

The Ducks jumped out ahead of the Buckeyes, 7-0, after a short TD pass from Marcus Mariota to Keanon Lowe. It would be the team's one and only lead of the game. Ohio State answered with an Ezekiel Elliott 33-yard touchdown run to knot the score at 7-7. The boys in red would add on another TD on a one-yard pass from Cardale Jones to Nick Vannett to give OSU a 14-7 advantage to end the first. The second quarter saw Ohio State add on another seven and the Ducks counter with a field goal to enter halftime trailing 21-10. The Ducks emerged from the locker room energized and determined to get back in the game, pulling to within four after a 70-yard touchdown pass off the arm of Marcus Mariota and into the hands of Byron Marshall. The Ducks further sliced the lead to one after a field goal made the score 21-20 Ohio State. But the Buckeye offense took control and the defense clamped down. Ezekiel Elliott ran in three scores over the final quarter-plus to seal the deal and give the Buckeyes a decisive 42-20 win. It was Coach Urban Meyer's third title and first with Ohio State. Running Back Ezekiel Elliott was unsurprisingly named offensive MVP with Ohio State Safety Tyvis Powell receiving the honor on the other side of the ball.

This release may limitedly appeal beyond the Ohio State fan (and diehard college football fans) as the first-ever "true" playoff game to decide a national champion. The 2014 season saw the addition of a four-team, three-game playoff bracket that would allow the top four teams, as ranked by experts and electronics, to decide the national championship strictly on the field, not by an end-season poll. As such, it's an historical milestone of sorts, along with the Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl games, also home to true "playoff" college football. Otherwise, and particularly considering the troubled video and audio and absence of supplemental materials (see below), there's no other reason for the casual fan to part with the money for this release.

2015 CFP National Championship Game Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

2015 National Championship arrives on Blu-ray with a 720p, 1.78:1-framed transfer. It's not particularly attractive. Heavy blocking plagues a number of shots. Aliasing and ringing often sour bits of the field. Graphics are poorly defined. Colors are bright but not very well nuanced. The green field and red Ohio State jerseys dominate, each appearing sufficiently vibrant but failing to appear with any sort of tight, accurate crispness and definition. Details are moderately attractive. Helmet and fabric textures, the field, and faces offer decent attention to detail but can't match other sporting events shot on video, particularly most any of the significantly richer WWE releases. Background crowds are well defined to a point -- the first few rows -- but definition and clarity drop quickly thereafter. This is essentially a fairly cruddy HD broadcast image dropped onto Blu-ray. Fans shouldn't expect any improvement over what they saw on January 12. At least it's consistent.

2015 CFP National Championship Game Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

2015 National Championship snaps onto Blu-ray with a disappointing DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. Nothing is particularly well defined here. In-booth commentary occasionally plays with a fairly sharp edge to it. Sideline reports lack distinction and verbal nuance. Crowd noise is muffled and never rises above the level of a poorly defined blob of sound that's barely identifiable for what it is. Random cuts to fans in the stands are even less dynamic and play with a harsh, garbled edge. Band music, whistles, and hits on the field rarely offer more than cursory sonic detail. There's at least a decent sense of front-end space, and dialogue does manage a center-focused feel. On the whole, however, this one barely passes muster.

2015 CFP National Championship Game Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

2015 National Championship doesn't contain any supplements, per se, but it does include the post-game trophy presentation, which is listed as a special feature on the back of the box (which is a DVD case, not a Blu-ray case). It's simply an extension of the program beyond the game, beginning at about the 2:33:44 mark and lasting for about 16 minutes. The Nissan "Pregame Rush" is also included before kickoff, which lasts a little over five minutes, showing the teams coming out onto the field. From the main menu, viewers may choose a "play all" option or jump to the start of any of the four quarters plus the aforementioned trophy presentation. A DVD copy of the game is also included in the case.

2015 CFP National Championship Game Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

No fluff, no filler, and strictly for fans. 2015 National Championship is nothing but the original ESPN broadcast dropped onto Blu-ray with team entrances featured at the beginning and the post game celebration added on to the end. There's no halftime show, no extras recounting the story of how both teams got to the game, and, most disappointingly, no look at the revamped bowl season playoff structure. Fans who want to relive the game time and again without worrying about it getting lost on the DVR are the target audience here. Picture and sound suffice and reflect the original broadcast, but in terms of raw quality both score rather poorly. Recommended to fans who will watch it enough to warrant the buy which, at the end of the day, holds true for most every release but rings particularly accurate here.