The Athletic ranks the top 25 college football programs since 200. Where is Ohio State?
Do you agree with @slmandel's list of the top 25 college football programs of the 2000s? pic.twitter.com/yVgmOTWM52 — The Athletic (@TheAthletic) May 23, 2025
Being at the top of list of best things is something everyone would be proud of. I mean, having a road or school named after you or a Wikipedia page is also noteworthy, but when it comes to ranking the best teams in a sport over a period of time, who doesn't want to be on top?
On that note, the Ohio State football program should be able to beat its chest a little thanks to the latest ranking from The Athletic, which took on ranking the top 25 college football programs over the last 25 years. If you're counting, that's from the year 2000 on. And ... according to the piece, YOUR Ohio State Buckeyes are numero uno during that time period.
Now, it's important to note how The Athletic came about these rankings, so we'll give you the cliff-notes version. Stewart Mandel took a look at win %, BCS/NY6 bowls, national titles, conference titles, top ten wins, top 25 wins, top ten rankings, top 25 rankings, and losing seasons. He ranked them all and came up with a final tally of how the teams stacked up.
When you look at all of that, Ohio State is really the only team that has stayed away from a downturn over the last 25 years. Because of that, it is No. 1 in winning percentage (.840), top ten wins (39), top ten rankings (75.4%), and top 25 rankings (92.7%). That was enough to rank ahead of No. 2 Alabama -- largely because of the time period before Nick Saban's arrival in 2008.
The staying power and recession-proof era for the Buckeyes is very, very impressive and you shouldn't let anyone tell you the program is overrated because of the numbers and success on the field. Teams rounding out the top ten behind OSU and Alabama are Oklahoma (3), Georgia (4), LSU (5), Clemson (6), Oregon (7), USC (8), Texas (9), and Florida (10).
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