Yeah, OSU has all sorts of weird losses.
It could be that Purdue goes 2-10 this year, looking bad in every loss, with their lone conference win being beating OSU 
Let me acknowledge up front that this is definitely "helmet school problems", but Ohio State's incredible consistency at being top-5ish but without quite so many championships as other similarly situated teams means that Ohio State probably has more "heartbreaker" seasons than anybody.
1998 is a perfect example. That team was, for their era, one of the best cfb teams I've seen period. So when I look back as a tOSU fan it is such a heartbreaking woulda-coulda-shoulda situation because they were oh-so-close to getting into (and possibly winning) the inaugural BCSNCG. Looking at that one either Ohio State not losing at home to a mediocre (they finished 6-6*) MSU team or MissSt managing to hold onto a 14-10 lead midway through the fourth quarter gets tOSU into the CG.
When I say this here is what I am referring to:
Ohio State is tied with Bama for #2 all-time with 30 top-5 finishes. That trails only Oklahoma, the Sooners have 33. But look at it along with AP #1 finishes:
- 33 Oklahoma, 7 NC's leaving 26 finishes at #2-#5
- 30 Bama, 12 NC's leaving 18 finishes at #2-#5
- 30 Ohio State, 5 NC's leaving 25 finishes at #2-#5
- 25 Notre Dame, 8 NC's leaving 17 finishes at #2-#5
- 21 Texas, 3 NC's leaving 18 finishes at #2-#5
- 19 USC, 5 NC's leaving 14 finishes at #2-#5
- 18 Michigan, 3 NC's leaving 15 finishes at #2-#5
- 17 FSU, 3 NC's leaving 14 finishes at #2-#5
- 15 UGA, 3 NC's leaving 12 finishes at #2-#5
- 14 Penn State, 2 NC's leaving 12 finishes at #2-#5
I think those #2-#5 finishes are the "heartbreakers", the ones you look back at and just think "if only" because they were "oh-so-close" and Ohio State has a LOT of those.
*MSU in 1998 went 6-6 but this was in the midst of MSU's era of constantly beating top-10 opponents but losing to crappy teams. That year not only did they beat tOSU, they also beat a very good ND team that finished 9-3 and played pretty well on the road against a M team that finished 10-3 but they lost to:
- 5-6 MN
- 8-4 CoSU
- 8-4 Ore
- 9-4 PU
- 9-3 PSU
The year before that they blew out a PSU team that finished 9-3 but only went 7-5 themselves. In 1995 they knocked off a M team that finished 9-4 but only went 6-5-1 themselves.
The year after that they pulled off a rare feat of beating Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State in the same season but only went 10-2 because they had a two-game stretch in mid-October where they got annihilated by Purdue and Wisconsin in successive weeks. In 2000 they beat a very good ND team but finished sub .500.
