Ohio State football: 3 best teams to not win a National Championship
By Ryan Stano
For a long time, most Buckeye fans would point to the 1998 team as the most talented team in Ohio State history with or without a national title. Coached by John Cooper, this team was preseason number one and looked every bit deserving of that ranking.
In the first 8 games of their season, not a single team was within single digits of beating the Buckeyes. Cooper’s squad went 8-0 and took down three top 25 teams in that span without so much as breaking a sweat. It looked that way for most of their 9th game too.
The 1998 squad had 8 draftees taken in the 1999 NFL draft, including David Boston, Antoine Winfield, and Andy Katzenmoyer all going in the first round. Unfortunately, that accumulation of talent wasn’t good enough to beat Michigan State in the Shoe on November 7th.
Cooper’s Buckeyes had 15 point lead late in the third quarter and blew it. The Buckeyes ended falling 28-24 to a 5-4 Spartans squad that were 28 point underdogs coming into the contest. It was a crushing blow that would be the beginning of the end for Cooper coaching the team.
Ohio State eventually went on to finish number 2 in the polls behind eventual national champion Tennessee. If you ask a lot of Buckeye fans, there is no doubt in their minds that had they won that game, there would have been a championship parade rolling through Columbus.
This last team is the best team I have ever witnessed at Ohio State and lost a chance to play for a title because of some extremely questionable officiating.