The Ohio State Buckeyes have never had a low point as bad as the Texas Longhorns and TTUN's in the 2010s, the Alabama Crimson Tide's in the aughts, or the Oklahoma Sooners' way back in the 1990s.
The Athletic's Cameron Teague Robinson eloquently explained that point in a piece titled "Why Ohio State is the most recession-proof program in college football."
"At Ohio State, mediocre seasons never spiral to rock bottom. Losses never turn into prolonged periods of losing like the dry spells that have befallen every other blue-blood program, from Oklahoma in the 1990s to Alabama in the 2000s to Michigan and Texas in the 2010s. Even Ohio State’s relative down years of the 1980s and ’90s included high peaks," Teague Robinson wrote.
Urban Meyer believes Jim Tressel elevated OSU to those heights. Regardless of who did, though, the program's culture is already establishing itself to never be down for long.
Ohio State's impatience with Ryan Day led to Buckeyes' CFP title
Undoubtedly, Ohio State has adjusted to every new era flawlessly. They are timeless, as Teague Robinson proclaimed.
The Buckeyes won the first College Football Playoff title in 2014/2015. They just survived (and dominated) the 2024/25 field, which expanded to 12 teams and an extra month of games. When NIL became the law of the land, OSU became a perennial CFP participant in some of the last few four-team fields.
On that last point -- if not for pressuring Day to finally get the job done and get the team over the hump, record spending on a championship roster and coaching staff wouldn't have happened. That standard could keep Day on his toes next offseason if Matt Patricia or Brian Hartline -- but probably Patricia -- don't get the job done in their coordinator roles.
There's blue blood, and then there's Buckeye blood.
The latter doesn't experience losing like the others.