Ohio State will earn it to keep an impressive streak alive this year

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There’s a reason folks call the Ohio State football program the most consistent in the country. The Buckeyes haven’t had a losing regular season since the 1966 campaign by Woody Hayes, and have never lost more than seven games. There’s only six losing regular seasons in the history of the program. That has led to the Buckeyes having the best winning percentage of all FBS.

But what OSU has done since 2011 is quite remarkable and probably deserves a lot more publicity. Consider that Ohio State hasn’t lost more than two games in a regular season since 2011, the transition year between Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer. That year, interim head coach Luke Fickell kept the program between the guardrails by going 6-6 in the regular-season, losing to Florida in the Gator Bowl to finish 6-7. Every year since then (2012 to last season), Ohio State hasn’t lost more than two games through the Urban Meyer and Ryan Day tenures. That is a crazy stat in today’s game of college football.

However, if the Buckeyes are to keep that going, they’ll have to navigate one of the toughest schedules we’ve seen laid out in the regular season in quite some time, and certainly one of the most difficult schedules in all of college football in 2026.

Ohio State has a particularly difficult road to traverse on the road, playing at Texas, at Iowa, at Indiana, and at USC. The Buckeyes won’t lose all of those, but being beaten in half of those would be two losses right there. Home games should be a little easier, but OSU will still have to beat Oregon and Michigan at home. All of that is not even taking into consideration games at Nebraska and upstart Illinois at home.

That’s a lot of very tough games and if head coach Ryan Day can somehow steer what will be a very talented team through that “Lord of the Rings” journey, it will be quite impressive. There aren’t odds out yet on all of those games, and the preseason rankings are still a ways off, but it’s hard to imagine Ohio State going undefeated at the least with that type of schedule. It’s doubtful the Buckeyes will be favored in every single game like we’ve seen through most of the past few years.

As always, if Ohio State is going to extend the ridiculous streak of 14-straight years of having just two losses or more, it’ll most likely need not only exceptional play in a lot games that may come down to the fourth quarter, but some breaks, luck on injuries, and depth to play a role.

Would you put money down on Ohio State losing just two games or less during the 2026 season? History and the talent of this team suggest it’s a definite possibility, but it’s not like an extra point as we’ve seen in years past, more like a mid-size to long field goal.

This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: Ohio State will earn it to keep an impressive streak alive this year

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