BOOM
2025 cornerback Jordyn Woods flips from Cincinnati and commits to Ohio State.
No, 886 is not the area code of some small Ohio city (it's actually a Taiwan area code) or the number of touchdowns Urban Meyer wants to score every Saturday. It's the number of wins the Ohio State football team has since its inception in 1890.
Having been around for 127 years, Ohio State football is one of the oldest and most storied programs in the NCAA. In fact, the Buckeyes have the fifth most wins of all-time.
And before we start examining this closer, let's start with something that's sure to get everyone in a good mood: about five percent of those wins are against Michigan and just over half have come against Big Ten schools.
However, despite the impressive amount of wins and bullying that the Buckeyes have done against their own conference, two current Big Ten teams have more wins all-time: Nebraska with 889 and Michigan with 935, which is the most of any program.
Of course, anyone who's been a fan of the Buckeyes for awhile — or any Big Ten school for that matter — will know that Nebraska only joined the conference in 2011, so maybe it's still a bit early to compare them to Ohio State for all-time wins. In fact, the Big Ten has produced the second-most national championships (29) of any conference, coming in behind only the Ivy League. In the Big 12, Nebraska, with its five national titles, would account for nearly a third of the total titles in the conference (11 — would be 16 if Nebraska was in the Big 12).
| Rank | Team | Wins | Losses | Ties | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michigan Wolverines | 935 | 333 | 36 | 1304 |
| 2 | Texas Longhorns | 891 | 359 | 33 | 1283 |
| 3 | Yale Bulldogs | 890 | 369 | 55 | 1314 |
| 4 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | 889 | 371 | 40 | 1300 |
| 5 | Ohio State Buckeyes | 886 | 322 | 53 | 1278 |
So, if you look at the list of all-time leaders in wins, Ohio State has played the fewest games of any team in the top five (albeit by a rather slim margin) and currently seems to have the best chance at a national title on an annual basis. If every team in the top five was to recreate their 2016-2017 season for the foreseeable future, it would take only next season for both Nebraska and Ohio State to pass Yale, one season to tie Texas, and two seasons to pass both Nebraska and Texas.
And, in case you were wondering, it would take almost 50 years for Ohio State to catch up with That School Up North if both teams replicated their 2016 seasons each year. Not all news is good, sadly.
(Note: if Ohio State's wins from the 2010 season weren't vacated, the program would have already passed all the schools in the top five except Michigan
However, those programs can't be expected to wait in mediocrity while Ohio State passes them up on this list. It might be more likely that Ohio State will be better than those schools for a few years, but I'm sure former Buckeye offensive coordinator and current Longhorns head coach Tom Herman doesn't want to lead his program to a 5-7 record each year.
Another thing you may have noticed when looking at the chart above is that Ohio State has the least losses of any program as well as the least games played. Ohio State is the second-youngest program in the top five, seeing as Yale's team has been around since 1872 and Michigan since 1879. Both Nebraska and Ohio State started playing in 1890 and Texas began in 1893. If you divide each school's wins by their total games played, Ohio State still sticks out as having the second-highest win percentage (.724), and that holds up even when compared to every NCAA school with over 600 wins. Only Michigan (.731) has a better win percentage.
But let's talk about the game that matters above all else. No, not The Game, I know that's important too, but I'm talking about national championships.
As you might already know, Ohio State has eight national championships in its history. And as any Michigan fan will tell you, the Bucks trail the Wolverines in that race as That Team Up North has won 11.
However, what most Michigan fans won't tell you, though, is that four of Michigan's titles came from 1901-1904 (yes, a four-peat), when there was no official championship game. In fact, in those years, the NCAA record book credits three teams as national champions each year, and the first line of the Wikipedia page for each of those seasons states, "The 1901/1902/1903/1904 college football season had no clear-cut champion, with the Official NCAA Division I Football Records Book listing [three teams] as having been selected national champions."
However, plenty of national championships have been questionable and many still are. Plenty of fans thought that Penn State should have received a bid into the College Football Playoff last season over Ohio State, and fans of any team in the top eight or so might have thought their team deserved a spot. I just wanted to give you some ammunition next time you get the "Michigan still has more national championships than Ohio State" argument.
Yale is a different beast when it comes to national championships, though. The team's Wikipedia page has the school listed as having won 27 national championships in its history, which is out of this world. However, it's important to remember that college football was a much different place back when the Bulldogs were winning titles. The school won 26 programs from 1872-1909 and won its only other national title in 1927.
As for the other schools on the list, Texas has claimed four national championship wins (11 unclaimed) and Nebraska has claimed five (nine unclaimed).
Of the five schools on the list, Ohio State has the most recent national championship in 2014 and two of the three most recent with their win in 2002. Texas in 2005 is is the only other title in the last 15 years from the list.
So, while Ohio State is currently No. 5 on the list, their near future seems the brightest of schools in this article and in most of the NCAA. Yale has moved out of the college football spotlight and who knows if they'll ever compete for a spot in the College Football Playoff. Texas is still rebuilding and Nebraska is struggling to win even the Big Ten West on a consistent basis. While Michigan certainly poses a threat to Ohio State at the end of each regular season, it's been proven time and time again that Urban Meyer can handle Michigan and Jim Harbaugh on the football field. It will certainly take some time, but Ohio State is gunning for the No. 1 spot in all-time wins, and it seems like they've got the coach and talent to get them closer in the coming seasons.
Better luck next time, Alabama (6th on the list with 878 wins).
(P.S. I know it's fun to pick on Rutgers, and here's some ammunition for your next takedown of the Scarlet Knights: of programs with over 600 wins all-time, Rutgers has the lowest win percentage (.505) and have lost only 14 fewer games than they've won (645 wins, 631 losses).)
