For Ohio State the most recent team is obvious. They had a one point road loss on the West Coast to a team that finished 13-1 and spent most of the year at #1. Also, that loss was avenged with a 20 point beatdown in the CFP Quarter-Final/Rose Bowl.
The other loss was a pretty much inexcusable home loss to a mediocre Michigan team but this team ended up with an all-time (for now) record number of wins over AP Top-5 opponents and if you look at the final poll, 2024 Ohio State:
- beat #2 by 11
- split with #3, losing by 1 on the road and winning by 20 at a neutral site
- beat #4 by 14
- beat #5 on the road
- beat #9 by 25
- beat #10 by 23
With the 12-team CFP going forward that probably won't be too unusual but historically that is INSANE.
2023:
This team finished 11-2 with a six point loss on the road to the eventual 15-0 NC and then an 11 point loss in a bowl game they didn't want to be in, without their starting QB. This team was THISCLOSE to being in the CFP instead of Michigan so yeah, very good 2-loss team.
2022:
This team finished 11-2 with a closer-than-the-score 22 point loss* to a cheating Michigan team that finished 13-1 (losing to the only decent team on their schedule that they didn't cheat against) and a one point loss to eventual NC Georgia in a game so close that Ohio State had a FG in the air as time expired that would have won it. This team was THISCLOSE to a NC so yeah, very good 2-loss team.
*I'm calling this "closer than the score" because it was a one score game midway through the fourth quarter then Michigan scored two late TD's to turn it into a blowout.
2021 also had two losses but, IMHO, they weren't that good.
2017 also had two losses but, IMHO, they weren't that good either.
2016 same as above.
2013 wasn't as good as the 2022-2024 2-loss teams but they finished with a 10 point loss (that was a REALLY close game) to MSU in the B1GCG and a five point loss to Clemson in the Sugar Bowl. Both of those were games that easily could have gone the other way.
2009 same as above.
2007 I feel compelled to include because their losses were to a stout Illinois team and to LSU in the NC.
2005 is probably one of the best 2-loss teams ever in terms of quality of losses. They lost by a FG to eventual 13-0 NC Texas and by a TD on the road to a Penn State team that finished 11-1 and #3. The losses were REALLY good but I think their only win over a team that finished ranked was the bowl win over Notre Dame.
2003 same as above
1995 was a John Cooper special if there ever was one. They got to 11-0 and #2 then gave up about a million yards to some human spelling bee in Ann Arbor and still only lost by one score then lost to Peyton Manning's 11-1 Vols in the Citrus Bowl. A lot of older tOSU fans still call Tennessee "Tennecheat" because apparently the Vols wore cleats that didn't comply with regulations in that game. In my view, it was a long time ago and I don't think Tennessee did it intentionally, we saw what real, premeditated, intentional cheating looks like more recently.
1974 finished 10-2 with a "WTF" FG loss to MSU in East Lansing (MSU finished 7-3-1 and #12 so it wasn't THAT bad of a loss) and a one point loss in the Rose Bowl to a 10-1-1 USC team that finished #2. Ohio State also handed Michigan their only loss of the year that year and Michigan finished 10-1.
1972 is a lot like 1974. They had a "WTF" loss to MSU in East Lansing (MSU finished 5-5-1) and they gave Michigan their only loss of the year. They got blown out in the Rose Bowl but it was by a USC squad that finished 12-0 and #1 in the Nation.
