Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I think we need to convince @medinabuckeye1  to be our new @ftbobs .

Everyone else agree?

Yup.


He's already close to halfway there.  He just needs a massive database.

The frustration of being a fan of Ohio State is the amazing consistency of the Buckeyes.  Without knowing when exactly your "viewing lifetime" began, I already know that Ohio State is one of the three programs ahead of yours in winning percentage.  I do take pride in that, but note that UF has three NC's (1996, 2006, 2008) while tOSU only has two (2002, 2014). 

Depending on exactly when your "viewing lifetime" started Ohio State is almost certainly #1 in winning percentage but I would guess that the majority of the teams in that top group each have more NC's than Ohio State. 

It is a good and a bad thing.  Ohio State has had very few bad seasons and they haven't strung together a decade or more of them in about a century.  No other program has accomplished anywhere close to that level of consistent performance.  That is the good part.  The bad part is that Ohio State hasn't peaked as high as most of the other programs in Ohio State's universe and "only" has two NC's in the last 50 years. 

   
Damn, only 2?  

   
Damn, only 2? 

LoL, I deserved this.  

I get it, and I didn't mean it as complaining that my school "only" has two NC's in my lifetime.  I'm lucky and I know it.  That said, given how consistently good Ohio State has been, the Buckeyes probably have more near misses than any other school.  Compare to Alabama which is going to make pretty much any school look bad.  Here is the thing, the vast majority of schools aren't anywhere close to Alabama's long-term winning percentage so it isn't surprising that they have less NC's.  When you compare Ohio State to Alabama, the Buckeyes are actually ahead of Alabama in winning percentage over most time frames but the Buckeyes have nowhere near the number of NC's because the Tide and Buckeyes achieved their high winning percentages in very different ways.  Upthread, @rolltidefan talked about Bama's "malaise era" when the Tide just plain sucked.  As amazing as this is today, Alabama actually had a losing record over a ten year period as recently as when they went 49-54 or 0.476 from 1998-2007.  The plain fact is that Bama sucked for most of that time but they've compensated by being amazing in other times.  The Buckeyes haven't had a sub .500 decade in a century which is great but the Buckeyes also haven't quite hit the heights that other programs in Ohio State's neighborhood have hit.  

Near misses are frustrating no matter what school you root for and that applies to near misses at beating your rival, near misses at knocking off #1, near misses at league titles, and also near misses at NC's.  That last category, near-miss NC's is a category that I'm positive Ohio State leads the country in.  Just since the BCS started:

• 1998:  The Buckeyes were ranked #1 to start the year and held that until losing at home to unranked MSU.  They won the rest of their games including over #11 Michigan the last week of the regular season and over #8 aTm in the Sugar Bowl and finished the season ranked #2 behind only BCSNCG winner Tennessee.  This was a near-miss in multiple ways.  First, if the Buckeyes simply hadn't coughed up the MSU upset, they'd have been in the inaugural BCSNCG.  Second, there were a slew of upsets in the CG's that year and Tennessee almost lost to Arkansas which also would have gotten the Buckeyes in.  
• 2003:  The Buckeyes lost twice, to UW in Madison and to M in Ann Arbor.  Both were competitive games and a win in either one probably puts the Buckeyes back in the BCSNCG against Oklahoma.  
• 2005:  The Buckeyes lost two games early and both were close.  They lost to a Vince Young led Longhorn team that ended up winning the NC then lost on the road to a Penn State team that finished #3.  If Ohio State had beaten Texas then the final poll would have been a mess.  All else being equal, Texas would have been 11-1 with a loss to tOSU.  Ohio State would have been 10-1 with a win over TX and a loss to PSU.  PSU would have been 10-1 with a win over tOSU.   One of the three would have played USC for the NC but I can't say which one as you can make a decent case for any of the three.  
• 2006:  #1 to start the year, undefeated heading into the BCSNCG, lost.  
• 2007:  Lost BCSNCG to LSU.  
• 2010:  It ended up being vacated due to something about tattoos but the team finished 12-1 and #5.  
• 2012:  Undefeated but had a postseason ban.  
• 2013:  Undefeated and #2 heading into the B1GCG and although the loss there was by 10 points, the game was CLOSE with the Buckeyes holding an early 4th quarter lead and being within a FG until the last two minutes.  
• 2015:  Upset at home by MSU and finished 12-1 and #4.  
• 2016:  Lost CFP semi-final.  
• 2017:  Lost two games and JUST missed CFP, would have been in with a win in either.  
• 2018:  Upset by Purdue and JUST missed CFP.  Finished 13-1 and #3.  
• 2019:  Lost CFP semi-final EXTREMELY close game.  
• 2020:  Lost CFP CG.  
• 2021:  Lost two games (vs Oregon and at Michigan) and probably would have made CFP with a win in either.  A win over Michigan would have resulted in a B!GCG appearance as a big favorite.  A win over Oregon would have left tOSU at 11-1 when the CFP was seeded so the final spot in the CFP would have come down to 13-0 Cincy or 11-1 Ohio State with Ohio State having obviously a MUCH better SoS and a loss to a team ranked higher than any that Cincy played but a loss which Cincy didn't have.  

I do appreciate my team being in contention and I don't mean this as a "woe is me" type thing.  I understand that the vast majority of fanbases would trade their team's record for my team's in a heartbeat.  All of that said, it is frustrating to be OH-SO-CLOSE.  

The frustration of being a fan of Ohio State is the amazing consistency of the Buckeyes.  Without knowing when exactly your "viewing lifetime" began, I already know that Ohio State is one of the three programs ahead of yours in winning percentage.  I do take pride in that, but note that UF has three NC's (1996, 2006, 2008) while tOSU only has two (2002, 2014). 

Depending on exactly when your "viewing lifetime" started Ohio State is almost certainly #1 in winning percentage but I would guess that the majority of the teams in that top group each have more NC's than Ohio State. 

It is a good and a bad thing.  Ohio State has had very few bad seasons and they haven't strung together a decade or more of them in about a century.  No other program has accomplished anywhere close to that level of consistent performance.  That is the good part.  The bad part is that Ohio State hasn't peaked as high as most of the other programs in Ohio State's universe and "only" has two NC's in the last 50 years. 

Man, you just made me feel old.  Saw the last line and thought no 3 NCs and then I realized 

I wasn't necessarily calling out Bama fans, ...

didn't mean to sound offended if i did. i didn't take offense to it anyway. just pointing out bama fans in my lifetime have had a more than rough period as well. but it sounded directed at bama cause you listing things applied to several schools and the seemed to single out a "certain school". my bad, doesn't matter either way, and i agree anyway, it is easy to be a bama fan right now.

BTW, a lot of people wonder WTF happened to Fran as well. Honestly, he was a horrible coach for us.  We had two losing seasons our of 5 years with him, and not only did we fall further behind OU/UT in the Big 12 but we started losing to Iowa State, Kansas, Baylor, and lots of other Big 12 programs that we had not lost to in the past under RC Slocum.  His 2003 team was memorably bad, 77-0 bad, and we got our ass kicked with regularity with him as our coach. Not just losing, but losing by a lot, a lot.  Even then, somehow he almost managed a decent season in 2006, narrowly losing to OU because he refused to play our best player in a situation where you would always use the guy.  Mike Sherman, while he was a good to great recruiter, was a horrible game day coach.  The man could not win the 2nd half to save his life. 

The funny thing is that most Ags very much dislike Kevin Sumlin, but if you look at the year 4 records of KS and Jimbo Fisher they are about even.  Sumlin may even have a win or two more, which is skewed by the short 2020 season but I guess we could have had another loss or two in there as well so I consider it a draw at best.  Maybe a couple of cup cake wins. 

i remember his tenure there. must say, i enjoyed it. but i was very surprised. really thought he'd do well there, for same reasons below...

I really thought Franchione was going to do well at Texas A&M.  He had great connections within the state, some solid coaching history, and plenty of swagger.

My ag FIL tells me that Fran probably had TOO MUCH swagger, came off as arrogant and aloof.  My FIL was a pretty generous donor back around that time and rubbed shoulders with the coaching staff and administration, so he'd know a lot better than I would.

have a friend whose dad was a hc for a non-football program at bama during his tenure here. similar stories, but at least during his time here he was mostly living up to the haughtiness.

  Upthread, @rolltidefan talked about Bama's "malaise era" when the Tide just plain sucked.  As amazing as this is today, Alabama actually had a losing record over a ten year period as recently as when they went 49-54 or 0.476 from 1998-2007.  The plain fact is that Bama sucked for most of that time but they've compensated by being amazing in other times.  The Buckeyes haven't had a sub .500 decade in a century which is great but the Buckeyes also haven't quite hit the heights that other programs in Ohio State's neighborhood have hit. 

fwiw, officially it's 49-54, but on field it was 70-54. had 21 wins vacated for textbook scandal.

but, and i've said this before, osu's consistency is remarkable and i must admit makes me jealous when seeing the stats.

on of my favorite stats for bama is every head coach going back to 1920 (xen scott) has had a 10 win season at bama, except for ears withworth in late 1950s who went 4-24-2 and was precursor to bryant. 12 out of last 13 head coaches had at least 1 stellar season.

i'd imagine osu has a similar stat for their head coaches.

are you me?

talked to the bobs few days ago, btw. said he's doing fine. didn't discuss his database.

Tell him we miss him.