Ohio Stadium 2006 fans storm field Ohio State

Get all the details about Ohio Stadium hosting the National Championship celebration for the Buckeyes, starting at 11 a.m. Saturday.

(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- What exactly are the Buckeyes celebrating on Saturday?

It's an Ohio State football national championship, yes. But what number?

Before we get to the details of the Ohio Stadium celebration with Urban Meyer and the Buckeyes that begins at 11 a.m. Saturday, let's quickly address this basic question that is still causing some confusion nearly two weeks after Ohio State beat Oregon in North Texas.

Is it six national championships or eight for the Buckeyes?

In the pressbox before the game on Jan. 12, I surveyed some other journalists to get their opinions on that question. I asked friends with the AP and Columbus Dispatch and Toledo Blade, as well as everyone in our cleveland.com crew. The goal for us was to be consistent, whatever number we chose. So we went with six, with a brief caveat in some stories explaining why it wasn't eight ... and then the headline in the paper, as you can see at the bottom of this post, went with eight.

Anyway.

Six titles are undisputed for Ohio State: 1942, 1954, 1957, 1968, 2002 and 2014.

The two up for debate are 1961 and 1970. Ohio State claims those two titles, so the school itself recognizes eight national titles. But it's not only up to the school.

David Briggs of the Blade explained this all very well in a December story, but the bottom line is that a lot of different groups in the old days of college football crowned national champions, and some schools will grab any of those they can take. Ohio State is not a major offender in that regard, but these two are certainly debatable, at the very least.

Ohio State's six undisputed titles were given by major polls, either the AP or UPI or coaches. Or they were in title games for 2002 and 2014. But those polls were how things were acknowledged before the playoff. People agreed on that.

In 1961, undefeated Alabama won the title in both polls, but 8-0-1 Ohio State was named the champion by the Football Writers Association of America. Iffy. The FWAA is a real group, but Alabama was the clear choice in the polls.

In 1970, undefeated Ohio State was named a co-national champion before the bowls by the National Football Foundation. And if the Buckeyes had won the Rose Bowl, they would have been the true national champs, without question, because Texas, No. 1 in the polls, lost the Cotton Bowl to Notre Dame.

But the Buckeyes lost the Rose Bowl to Stanford. So if that's a national title, it's one that ended with a loss.

And that's the dispute. There's no right answer, truly. Thankfully, the College Football Playoff will make sure there's never such disagreement again.

Now, for the rest of the details about Saturday at Ohio Stadium and the celebration for fans of this championship:

• Time: Celebration is from 11 a.m. to noon. The gates open at 9:15.

• Tickets: It's free. You don't need any. There were 2,500 free seats to get on the field that were snapped up Wednesday. But for the rest of you, just show up. You can enter at these gates: North Rotunda 1, North Rotunda 2, North Rotunda 3, 7, 9, 11, 15, 23, 25, 8, 14, 16 and 24.

• Parking: Also free. Go to any surface lot or the following garages: Lane Avenue, West Lane, Tuttle, Northwest, Neil and Arps. The only place that needs a parking pass is the West Stadium lot.

• Food: Limited. There will be hot chocolate, coffee and popcorn in A deck.

• Stuff you get: You get a rally towel when you walk in and a poster when you leave.

• Stuff you see: TBDBITL will be on hand, and expect smoke and fireworks. The second half of the win over Oregon will begin playing on the videoboard at 9:30, and a season recap video will end the celebration.

• Speeches: Urban Meyer will speak at 11:30, followed by several players.

• TV: Big Ten Network will have coverage beginning at 10:30 a.m. until the conclusion of the event.

• Stories: We'll write a bunch of them afterward and have a live chat during the celebration right here at Cleveland.com