All but one of the 61 coaches who vote in the USA Today coaches poll ranked Ohio State as one of the six best teams in the country.
Dabo Swinney, in his final ballot ahead of the Ohio State-Clemson Sugar Bowl, voted the Buckeyes at No. 11. He put them behind Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Florida, Georgia, Cincinnati, Oklahoma, Iowa State and Coastal Carolina.
All of the 60 other coaches put them at No. 6 or higher, and all but two of them – Swinney (No. 11) and Georgia's Kirby Smart (No. 6) – had Ohio State between No. 2 and No. 5. Of the 61 coaches who vote in the poll, 46 ranked the Buckeyes as one of the top-four teams in the country after championship weekend concluded. Notre Dame's Brian Kelly slotted them in at No. 4 and Alabama's Nick Saban had them at No. 5.
Polls of coaches were revealed for the first time all season on Monday morning.
Here is where Ohio State ended up one each of the coaches' final ballots:
- No. 1: N/A
- No. 2: Craig Bohl (Wyoming), Troy Calhoun (Air Force), Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern), Scott Frost (Nebraska), Bryan Harsin (Boise State), Scott Loeffler (Bowling Green), Jeff Monken (Army)
- No. 3: Dino Babers (Syracuse), Neal Brown (West Virginia), Matt Campbell (Iowa State), Steve Campbell (South Alabama), Jason Candle (Toledo), Paul Chryst (Wisconsin), Geoff Collins (Georgia Tech), David Cutcliffe (Duke), Manny Diaz (Miami), Sonny Dykes (SMU), Luke Fickell (Cincinnati), James Franklin (Penn State), Hugh Freeze (Liberty), Willie Fritz (Tulane), Todd Graham (Hawaii), Jeff Hafley (Boston College), Thomas Hammock (Northern Illinois), Will Healy (Charlotte), Tyson Helton (Western Kentucky), Tom Herman (Texas), Skip Holtz (Louisiana Tech), Chris Klieman (Kansas State), Lance Leipold (Buffalo), Tim Lester (Western Michigan), Seth Littrell (North Texas), Mike Locksley (Maryland), Chad Lunsford (Georgia Southern), Dan Muller (Florida), Ken Niumatalolo (Navy), Ed Orgeron (LSU), Scott Satterfield (Louisville), Jeff Scott (South Florida), Jonathan Smith (Oregon State), Frank Solich (Ohio), Jake Spavital (Texas State), Mel Tucker (Michigan State), Matt Wells (Texas Tech), Kyle Whittingham (Utah)
- No. 4: Justin Fuente (Virginia Tech), Clay Halton (USC), Mike Houston (East Carolina), Brian Kelly (Notre Dame), Gus Malzahn (Auburn), Billy Napier (Louisiana-Lafayette), Jeremy Pruitt (Tennessee), Rick Stockstill (Middle Tennessee)
- No. 5: Jamey Chadwell (Coastal Carolina), Butch Davis (Florida International), Dana Dimel (Texas El-Paso), Jimbo Fisher (Texas A&M), Gary Patterson (TCU), Nick Saban (Alabama)
- No. 6: Kirby Smart (Georgia)
- No. 7: N/A
- No. 8: N/A
- No. 9: N/A
- No. 10: N/A
- No. 11: Dabo Swinney (Clemson)
Ryan Day, Ohio State's head coach, is not one of the 61 voters this year.
