The

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tre ...

college football team competes as part of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

(NCAA) Division I

Football Bowl Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

, representing the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

in the East Division of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

. Ohio State has played their home games at Ohio Stadium in

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

since 1922. The Buckeyes claim eight

national championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

along with 38 conference championships and ten undefeated seasons (six perfect seasons). Ohio State is second among all Big Ten programs in terms of conference championships (38) and has an overall record of 468-171-24 in conference play. With 924 wins in over 130 seasons of football, Ohio State ranks Second among all programs in terms of total wins and is First all-time in Winning percentage in the NCAA. Football was introduced to the university by George Cole and

Alexander S. Lilley Alexander Spinning Lilley (December 7, 1867 – December 8, 1925) was an American football coach. He served as the first head football coach at Ohio State University. Lilley was an unpaid volunteer coach during his time coaching at Ohio State. He ...

in 1890. Lilley led the Buckeyes to a record of three wins and five losses over his two seasons as head coach. Ohio State was a football independent from 1890 to 1901 before joining the

Ohio Athletic Conference The Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) was formed in 1902 and is the third oldest athletic conference in the United States. Its current commissioner is Sarah Otey. Former commissioners include Mike Cleary, who was the first General Manager of a profe ...

(OAC) as a charter member in 1902. The Buckeyes won two conference championships while members of the OAC and in 1913 became members of the

. The school saw its first real success in football and in the Big Ten under head coach

John Wilce John Woodworth Wilce (May 12, 1888 – May 17, 1963) was an American football player and coach, physician, and university professor. He served as the head football coach at Ohio State University from 1913 to 1928, compiling a record of 78–33–9 ...

, who spent sixteen years at the university and won three conference championships, with a Rose Bowl appearance in 1921. Ohio State won two more Big Ten titles under head coach

Francis Schmidt Francis Albert Schmidt (December 3, 1885 – September 19, 1944) was an American football player and coach of football, basketball, and baseball. He served as the head football coach at the University of Tulsa (1919–1921), the University of Arka ...

and won their first national championship in

1942 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in w ...

under head coach

Paul Brown Paul Eugene Brown (September 7, 1908 – August 5, 1991) was an American football coach and executive in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and National Football League (NFL). Brown was both the co-founder and first coach of the Clevela ...

. Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Ohio State saw sparse success on the football field with three separate coaches and in 1951 hired

Woody Hayes Wayne Woodrow Hayes (February 14, 1913 – March 12, 1987) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Denison University (1946–1948), Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (1949–1950), and Ohio State University (1951 ...

to coach the team. Under his guidance Ohio State won thirteen Big Ten championships and national championships in 1954,

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 (K ...

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Janu ...

and

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

. During his tenure Ohio State appeared in the Rose Bowl eight times, with the Buckeyes winning four of them. Following Hayes' dismissal in 1978, Earl Bruce became the head coach, leading the Buckeyes to a conference championship and a Rose Bowl appearance in his first season. Bruce coached for the Buckeyes from 1979 to 1987 and was replaced in 1988 by John Cooper. Under Cooper and Bruce the Buckeyes won seven conference championships. Jim Tressel was hired as head coach in 2001 and quickly gave Ohio State its seventh national championship in 2002 with a win in the

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been pla ...

. Ohio State won seven Big Ten championships under Tressel and appeared in eight Bowl Championship Series games, winning five of them. In his debut as head coach,

Urban Meyer Urban Frank Meyer III (born July 10, 1964) is a college football TV commentator and former American football coach. He spent most of his coaching career at the collegiate level, having served as the head coach of the Bowling Green Falcons fro ...

led the program to an undefeated 2012 season, and two years later to their eighth national championship in the 2014 season. Through the 2019 season, Ohio State has compiled an official overall record of 924 wins, 326 losses and 53 ties, and has appeared in 50

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivi ...

s, with the most recent coming in 2019 Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State is the only program in college football history to have never lost more than seven games in a single season.

Seasons

All-time records

''Records current through 2021.''

Notes

References

{{Big Ten Conference football team seasons

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

* Ohio State Buckeyes football seasons