Hmmm. I think the nature of being good for a long time is there will always be some mess of big games you remember coming up short in. Like, every one of those teams with worse numbers probably has a lot of almosts as well,
No doubt here. If you've been a contender a LOT then you are bound to have come up just short a few times.
Getting to that top winning percentage is more about going 9-3 a lot as much as it is finishing the deal.
This is very true. The biggest reason that Ohio State is #1 in winning percentage over the last 50 years is that they haven't had a decade of being mediocre or worse and pretty much every other school has.
That said, it is fair to say that OSU didn't mine a ton from their best moments. The best late Hayes era ran through four or so title-less years with possible title teams.
This is so true. Prior to the "Ten Year War" between Woody and Bo, Hayes coached tOSU for 18 years. Compare those first 18 to his last 10:
Winning %
- .730, #3 nationally behind Ole Miss and Oklahoma from 1951-1968
- .806, #7 nationally behind Michigan, Oklahoma, Penn State, Alabama, Notre Dame, and Nebraska from 1969-1978
It is interesting that tOSU's win% got better but was worse relative to other helmets.
League titles:
- 5 from 1951-1968, a little better than one every four years. This was #1 in the league as no other school had more than 3 (IL, UW, IA, MSU). Michigan only had one.
- 8 from 1969-1978, four every five years. This was tied for #1 in the league with Michigan while the entire rest of the league had one combined (MSU in 1978 split with Michigan.
National titles:
- 3 from 1951-1968, one every six years.
- 1 *MAYBE* from 1969-1978 (the school claims 1970 but they lost their bowl. One every 10 years and a questionable one at that.
There was only one questionable NC from 1969-1978 but there were oh-so-many near misses:
- 1969: The team was defending NC and had been #1 all year long before losing to Michigan.
- 1970: The team was 9-0 before losing the Rose Bowl to Stanford. The sad thing for the Buckeyes is that the 1968 NC team was made up mostly of sophomores (first year players back then) and was probably better in 1969 and 1970 but they lost their last game both years.
- 1972: The team finished 9-2. One loss was 19-12 in East Lansing to an MSU team that only finished 5-5-1. Just one of those "upsets happen" things. The other was a blowout in the Rose Bowl to USC.
- 1973: The Buckeyes and Wolverines tied then the Buckeyes blew out USC in the Rose Bowl. IMHO, tOSU and Michigan were the best two teams in the country and were just REALLY unfortunate that they both had teams that good in the same year.
- 1974: Another inexplicable loss to a mediocre MSU team (7-3-1 this time) then a 1-point loss to USC in the Rose Bowl.
- 1975: This team, like 1973 was probably the best in the country. Their only loss was in the Rose Bowl to a UCLA team that they had destroyed earlier in the season.
In Woody's last 10 years he had six teams that were, as you put it, "possible title teams". I take that to mean NC Caliber or good enough to possibly win it and somehow tOSU got zero titles out of that unless you count 1970.
Then you get two titles out of 17 years of .859 ball, that'll do it.
Exactly what 17 years are you referring to here?
Also, 11 teams have 45 of 54 titles. Only others are Michigan, Colorado, Ga. Tech, Washington, Auburn, Pitt, UGA, BYU, PSU.
That shows how strongly helmets dominate. Interestingly, the last first-time AP NC was Florida in 1996. This is an exclusive club.
Osborne said it takes a little luck to get the title
I agree, but I think that is less true today. Back in the BCS and pre-BCS eras one of the biggest things you needed was to have your "bad game" in a week when you could win anyway rather than getting knocked off. For example, back in 2002 the Buckeyes played clearly NOT NC Caliber ball in a bunch of games but they were against teams like Cincinnati and Northwestern so they won anyway and kept surviving. Alternatively, the Buckeyes missed out on titles or title chances by losing to significantly inferior teams in many other years.
I think it is different now because the CFP has reduced the focus on being undefeated. Starting from the very first year, Ohio State lost their opener to a mediocre VaTech team and pre-CFP that probably would have done them in but in the CFP era that didn't end their chances.
