When it came to playing against the nation's best, Ohio State has been the best in the nation.
Over the past decade, no team had a better winning percentage against ranked opponents than the Buckeyes, according to a graphic from Fox.
Only eight teams finished the decade with winning records against ranked opponents, and the Buckeyes led the way with a .778 win percentage against top-25 teams, winning 35 of 45 games.
These are the only teams with winning records against ranked opponents in the last 10 years pic.twitter.com/himFUgV1PA
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) July 11, 2020
The winning percentage could actually be even higher, depending on your definition of a top-25 win. Fox's table does not include Ohio State's 2014 win over Minnesota. The Gophers were not in the AP or Coaches' Top 25, but were No. 25 in the College Football Playoff Rankings.
| RANK | SCHOOL | W | L | W% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | OHIO STATE | 35 | 10 | .778 |
| 2 | MICHIGAN STATE | 21 | 23 | .477 |
| 3 | WISCONSIN | 20 | 22 | .476 |
| 4 | IOWA | 12 | 24 | .333 |
| 4 | NORTHWESTERN | 12 | 24 | .333 |
| 6 | MICHIGAN | 14 | 29 | .326 |
| 7 | PENN STATE | 12 | 25 | .324 |
| 8 | NEBRASKA | 8 | 24 | .250 |
| 9 | MINNESOTA | 5 | 27 | .156 |
| 10 | PURDUE | 4 | 27 | .129 |
| 11 | MARYLAND | 4 | 31 | .114 |
| 12 | ILLINOIS | 3 | 25 | .107 |
| 13 | INDIANA | 2 | 33 | .057 |
| 14 | RUTGERS | 0 | 25 | .000 |
Ohio State is the only Big Ten team to crack the list with no other program coming in at over .500 against top-25 teams, with Michigan State coming in an extremely distant second place with a 21-23 record for a win percentage of 0.477.
Wisconsin is narrowly behind Michigan State, with a 20-22 record and a 0.476 win percentage followed by Iowa and Northwestern at 0.4 and 0.33, respectively.
Michigan checks in all the way at sixth, with the Leaders and the Best finishing the decade just 14-29 against ranked opponents for a winning percentage of 0.326. Penn State, meanwhile, checks in just behind with a record of 12-25 (.324).
Rutgers, to nobody's surprise checks in at dead-ass last, not registering a single top-25 win in the entire decade, finishing 0-25 against ranked competition.
It was a decade of dominance for the Buckeyes both in the Big Ten and across the nation. Here's hoping for another one.
