I’ll admit, I hate putting thought towards this topic, yet I do. Some of Ohio State’s best wins sometimes don’t afford the celebration they deserve.

In New Orleans in the infancy of 1999 the Buckeyes handled an 8th-ranked Texas A&M team. Under normal conditions a major bowl win against top 10 competition to end the season is reason to celebrate. During the Cooper era, ANY bowl win should have been reason to celebrate. Yet in early 1999, that win had me shaking my head, thinking of what could have (and should have) been for that ‘98 team. By any standard that game yielded one of the highest quality wins of the decade for OSU (the Aggies finished higher in the polls after that loss than ‘96 ND and equal to ‘95 ND). Yet in terms of value, there were a lot of wins over lesser teams that felt MUCH more rewarding.

One could argue that in addition to the missed invitation to the 1998-99 Fiesta Bowl NCG, the fact that A&M was an relative upstart rather than a 90s Nebraska, Florida, or FSU program, only deflated the “should-be” reward of victory further. Plus the fact we missed out on the Rose Bowl due to a tie-breaker with Wisconsin lessened the game some as well. But that same bittersweet victory feeling occurred with bowl wins over ND in 2015 and USC in 2017 - arguably our two biggest OOC Buckeye hate recipients (at least pre CFP era). Even one of our most dominating wins in the Big House in program history - the 2015 game - rarely gets discussed for its beauty rather than the frustration of what should have been that year.

Painful thoughts left aside - as best they can be at least, it brought me to the topic: what are our most under-appreciated wins?

I’ll add that these aren’t limited to “hangover wins” in should-have-been years. Wins like 2004 over Michigan which did a 180 for that Buckeye season or wins against sneaky good teams like the Washington State team that finished top 10 in 2002 come to mind as well.