Three Buckeyes teams make list of best college football teams since 2000

COLUMBUS — Ohio State has been one of the two or three most consistently dominant programs in college football for the last 25 years. The Buckeyes are one of just two programs, along with Alabama, to win at least one national championship in each decade of the 21st century.

Of course, some of the Buckeyes best teams are among the 25 best teams of this century. Three of them made the cut of the 25 best teams of the first 25 years of the century so far from The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel.

Here was the criteria Mandel used to form his list:

1. Season-long dominance (using average scoring margin)
2. Big wins (using end-of-season AP poll rankings)
3. Schedule strength (using College Football Reference’s ratings)
4. Elite talent (using NFL Draft numbers over a three-year span)
5. No bad losses (either a blowout, or to a mediocre opponent)

The top team on the list was the 2001 Miami Hurricanes, a team that edged out second-place 2019 LSU.

Notably, the 2024 national title team did not make the list due to the criteria, which included season-long dominance and losses to mediocre teams. Of course, this most recent Ohio State team lost mid-season on the road at Oregon, which was the top team in the country, and also to close the regular season against a mediocre Michigan team at home.

But Mandel had three Ohio State teams on the list, and we’re breaking down all three of them. Let’s dive in.

No. 24: 2014 Ohio State

Mandel kicks off the Ohio State portion of this list with Urban Meyer’s lone Buckeyes national title team. He ranks this Buckeyes team ahead of No. 25, the 2006 Florida team that was also coached by Meyer and destroyed the 2006 Ohio State team that made the title game.

Here’s what Mandel said about the 2014 Buckeyes team:

With Cardale Jones replacing the injured Barrett at quarterback, running back Ezekiel Elliott went off for three consecutive 200-yard games to rout Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game, upset Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and humble Marcus Mariota’s Ducks to win the first College Football Playoff national championship.

If you judged this team solely by the postseason, it would be much higher. In terms of overall resume, the Buckeyes are downgraded for that Week 2 upset by Virginia Tech, which finished 7-6 — making it the worst loss by any team on this list.

– Stewart Mandel, The Athletic

No. 19: 2002 Ohio State

The first national title team from Ohio State in more than 30 years also made the list for Mandel. This Buckeyes team went undefeated and beat one of the greatest teams of all time, the 2002 Miami (Florida) Hurricanes, in the BCS national championship game. The 2002 Ohio State team had a lot of close wins and was led by its defense throughout the entire season.

Here’s what Mandel said about the 2002 Buckeyes team:

The Buckeyes, led by freshman running back Maurice Clarett, two-way star Gamble, Doss and defensive end Will Smith, endured a lot of mockery at the time for Jim Tressel’s uber-conservative offense. They finished 41st in scoring, and half of their Big Ten wins came by five or fewer points while scoring fewer than 20.

But then they ended Miami’s 34-game winning streak in a classic title game at the Fiesta Bowl. (Yes, a controversial call helped.) OSU gained even more respect in 2004 when it produced a then-NFL record 14 draft picks (including three first-rounders).

– Mandel

No. 14: 2019 Ohio State

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Here’s what Mandel said about the 2019 Buckeyes team:

Call me crazy, but I believe this squad, despite losing in the CFP semifinals, to be better than any of Ohio State’s three national title teams this century.

Ryan Day’s first OSU team was a beast. The Buckeyes averaged a 33.1-point scoring margin against the fourth-toughest schedule on this list. Young had 16.5 sacks, Dobbins ran for 2,003 yards and Fields threw 41 TDs against just three picks. Unfortunately for him, one of those three was in the end zone in the final seconds of a CFP loss to Clemson.

That Clemson team did not make the cut for these rankings due to the fact it faced zero teams in the regular season that finished in the Top 25.

– Mandel