Josh Pate Makes Bold Admission About Ohio State's Current Place in College Football

The Ohio State Buckeyes are back in the national spotlight as they came up short of winning back-to-back national titles with a Cotton Bowl exit at the hands of the Miami Hurricanes in December.

There is a sneaking suspicion the Buckeyes have recovered from the mess of the way this past season ended. With coach Ryan Day returning to Columbus once again and ignoring any backlash for any hints of accepting NFL jobs, the Buckeyes appear content with where they're at this fall.

College football podcast host Josh Pate, who is a regular in verticals at ESPN and On3, recently spoke about the Buckeyes' place in college football during an episode of Josh Pate's College Football Show.

Josh Pate thinks Ohio State is the top college football program in the country… he’s correct! pic.twitter.com/fAcQNjY4oJ
— The Buckeye Show 🌰 (@TheBuckGuys) February 16, 2026

“I think Ohio State is the top program in the country," Pate said. "Ohio State is 37-6 over the past three years. They've got a national championship mixed in here."

Even with the national title win against Notre Dame in Jan. 2025, Pate said the Buckeyes have more room to grow under Day alongside who the team has returning.

Most notably, Pate said staff turnover has not been an issue for the Buckeyes' recipe for consistently winning 10 or more games each season.

" You lose Chip Kelly, who was a foundational piece of that [title] run, and then you elevate from within," Pate said. "But then also you go and get Matt Patricia because Jim Knowles moves on, and if anything, they improved defensively, which is just really hard to do. That is supreme organizational structure there."

From the top down, Pate said the Buckeyes are in a good position to keep contending every year for one reason only: stability.

"Ohio State is here [in CFP contention] as long as Ryan Day is there," Pate said. "And even above and beyond Ryan Day — not to overlook him, one of the best doing it right now — but to move beyond him, Ohio State as a program has been resilient over the past several head coaches they've had."

Pate said the Buckeyes have little reason to be concerned with not winning a championship last year with the current state of the sport going into this fall

"They are a top-five recruiting program in the country," Pate said. "They are a very, very high-value portal program — translation: they don't need to flood themselves with a bunch of transfers because they recruit and develop very well, but when they do need to, they can be very selective and very effective in the transfer portal."

We'll see if Pate's words hold true.