The Associated Press College Football Poll has been around since the mid-1930s and Ohio State has been an almost constant somewhere in the rankings — hardly ever out of them. Yes, there are some down years like every program, but when you start looking at monster programs that continually have lofty rankings, there aren’t many better than the Buckeyes.
But not all years are created equal. Far from it. Sometimes Ohio State has exceeded expectations and risen up the preseason or Week 1 rankings, while oftentimes — okay, a lot of times — OSU has fallen from its perch to start the year.
We aren’t going all out and going back to 1935 or anything to show you a trend, but we are heading back to the year 2000 (because that seems like a nice, round place to begin), to look at Ohio State’s start in the AP Poll, and where it finished each year.
We thought it interesting to look at and thought you might as well. By the way, the Buckeyes begin the year at No. 2, so we’ll be watching again.