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Ohio State named top program in college football from last 25 years

Spencer-Holbrookby:Spencer Holbrook•05/23/25•

SpencerHolbrook

Brutus Buckeye by Matt Parker -- Lettermen Row --
(Matt Parker/Lettermen Row)

COLUMBUS — Ohio State won a national title early in this century before playing for two more titles just a few years later. The Buckeyes went on to win a national championship in the 2010s and competed for others during that decade. Now with a national championship win in a third straight decade and other College Football Playoff appearances surrounding that trophy win, the Buckeyes have a claim as the best program in the sport.

The Ohio State program has been the model of consistency in the sport for the last 25 years, which is why the folks at The Athletic have named Ohio State the best program from the first 25 years of college football.

Yes, even ahead of Alabama, which has won six national titles in the last 25 years. Ohio State and Alabama each have 39 wins over top-ten teams since 2000. In that time frame, Alabama has 94 top-25 wins compared to the Buckeyes’ 84. But Ohio State has a better win percentage, more top-25 rankings and more top-10 rankings — with the same number of conference titles and fewer losing seasons. Ohio State also has six more BCS/New Year’s Six bowl appearances than Alabama.

This is what The Athletic said about Ohio State as a program:

Only one program has spent nearly the entire century competing at an elite level — and it’s not Alabama, which was mediocre for six of the eight seasons before Nick Saban got rolling. Whereas Ohio State had only five seasons out of 25 in which it won fewer than 10 games (and one of those was an eight-game 2020 season). It’s won three national championships, played for three more, and craziest of all, it has been ranked in the Top 25 in nearly 93 percent of the 411 AP polls since 2000.

– The Athletic

Other Big Ten programs ranked among the top 25 programs in college football from the last 25 years were Oregon (7th), USC (8th), Michigan (11th), Wisconsin (16th), Penn State (17th), Iowa (23rd), Washington (24th) and Michigan State (25th).

The Big Ten has nine of the top 25 programs in the sport from the last 25 years, the most of any conference. The SEC trailed the Big Ten with seven programs on the list.

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