Fate isn't binary.
But maybe we tend to think of it that way when the stakes are high. If some mad scientist locks you in a cage with a man-eating tiger, in the moment your brain goes "Okay, escape or get eaten" but of course there are a number of other possible outcomes you're not considering in the moment. Maybe the tiger just eats your leg. Maybe the tiger helps you escape and you both eat the mad scientist. Maybe it turns out that (oh damn!) you're the tiger and Rod Serling pops in and says some cool stuff about society or whatever.
In 2011 the possibilities were endless for the next decade of Ohio State football, but really at the time only two outcomes seemed likely: either the Buckeyes would recover from their worst season in over 20 years and crush all enemies before them in a decade-long fit of rage, or they'd fold like a cheap umbrella and by 2015 stop playing football altogether to devote all their resources into dominating badminton.
Ohio State chose the former.
Which is lucky for Ryan Day and Ohio State fans in 2021 (not so much for USA Badminton), but to really appreciate just how bright the future is for the Buckeyes, it's instructive to see just how dominant they've been in the past. Before this season kicks off in just a few short days, let's take a look at a few ways in which Ohio State has utterly demolished the rest of the Big Ten since that turning point, that fork stuck in the road, when time grabbed the Buckeyes by the wrist and directed them where to go.
73-10
That's Ohio State's Big Ten record over the past ten seasons, including the Buckeyes’ 6-7 2011 campaign where they went 3-5 in conference play. Since then, the Buckeyes have never lost more than one Big Ten game in a season and finished undefeated in-conference five times. Michigan State is (somehow) the only Big Ten team to beat the Buckeyes twice since 2011. Penn State's done it once, and Michigan, of course, hasn't done it at all.
5
The inaugural Big Ten Championship Game was in 2011, and since then Ohio State has won five of them, includes the last four. The Buckeyes have won as many Big Ten championships as the rest of the conference combined over the past decade. Wisconsin has four losses in Indy, and three of them are to the Buckeyes. Ohio State hasn't lost a Big Ten Championship Game since they renamed the divisions from Legends and Leaders, which I'll just go ahead and credit the entirety of OSU's success to.
Back-to-Back-to-Back-to-Back-to-Back-to-Back-to-Back-to Back
Ohio State has strung together eight consecutive 10-plus-win seasons, far more than any other Big Ten program. Wisconsin managed an admittedly impressive four in a row from 2014 through 2017 and Sparty had three from 2013 through 2015. The teams that are supposedly the biggest threat to the Buckeyes in the Big Ten, Penn State and Michigan, each only had back-to-back 10-win seasons once in the 2010s.
180-0
No other Big Ten team has scored a single point in the College Football Playoff. Ohio State has scored 180 and won three games.
16-3
Ohio State's record against Michigan and Penn State in the last ten years isn't just remarkable, it is completely bonkers buckwild in the context of rivalry games that the Buckeyes have participated in over the years. Put another way, if you replaced either one of those two teams with the traditionally weak Illinois and Illibuck, the last decade would still be the only time in history when Ohio State has been so dominant against both rivalry game opponents.
The 2021 season has the potential to be a wild one for the Buckeyes because of the massive expectations the team has for national success and the attention the team will attract because of the incredible amount of talent on the roster. But what's clear from the past 10 seasons, despite occasional upsets involving witchcraft and corn, is that Ohio State is largely in a competition against itself to reach new heights.
For now, the Big Ten has been conquered, and atop the throne sits an unchallenged Brutus Buckeye.
