Ohio State’s victory over Notre Dame gave the Buckeyes their ninth national football championship, with the previous titles coming in 1942, 1954, 1957, 1961, 1968, 1970, 2002 and 2014.
That puts Ohio State in elite company, tying USC for sixth on the list of champions recognized by the NCAA in football’s highest division. Nine titles are incredible, but nine isn’t the only number that illustrate the power and impact of Buckeye excellence. Here’s a few more …
489: In the 2023-24 academic year, 489 of Ohio State’s 1,021 student-athletes were recognized as Academic All-Big Ten honorees — the most of any school in the conference.
96: Nearly all of the student-athletes who graduated last year — 96 percent — obtained jobs, went to grad school or continued playing professionally.
60: In 2025, two Ohio State icons will celebrate their 60th anniversaries. That’s right, in 1965 Sloopy became a Buckeye, and Brutus became, well, The Buckeye.
58: Meanwhile, another iconic image — Buckeye leaf stickers on helmets — first became an award to players for good plays and game victories 58 years ago, in 1967, when Ohio State trainer Ernie Biggs came up with the idea and Coach Woody Hayes ran with it.
50: Speaking of icons, this past fall saw the college football world celebrating the 50th anniversary of Archie Griffin’s first Heisman Trophy in 1974. Ohio State celebrated Griffin by unveiling a Rose Bowl-inspired statue, naming a street after him and inviting him for a rare honor — dotting the “i” with the marching band in Ohio Stadium.
24: Incoming, current and former Ohio State student-athletes competed in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris last summer, with five claiming medals.
12: In 2023-24, Ohio State earned a total of 12 national championships — five team titles and seven individual trophies. That included the women’s ice hockey team winning its second national championship in three seasons.
3.37: After autumn semester, the average grade point average of all Ohio State student-athletes is a sterling 3.37.
3.3: The average GPA for the football student-athletes? An impressive 3.3.
2: Ohio State’s football team is one of only two Division I programs to have a perfect Academic Progress Rate, which tracks student-athletes’ academic eligibility, retention and graduation rates. The other school is Harvard.
