See where Ohio State ranks in Big Ten for academics, according to U.S. News & World Report
It's been a great year for Ohio State so far: A college football championship, a second straight perfect academic progress report for the football program, and graduation for more than 12,000 graduates this month.
Now, the school has even more academic accolades courtesy of U.S. News & World Report's recent 2025 academic rankings. The publication revealed where Big Ten Conference schools rank among the nation's finest.
JD Vance drops OSU football championship trophy
Where does Ohio State rank academically among Big Ten schools? What makes it stand out among the competition? Let's take a look.
This year Ohio State shared its No. 7 spot with Rutgers University in New Brunswick. New Jersey.
"Ohio State's football national title was followed by a slight step forward in U.S. News' rankings," describes sports site Badgers Wire, which covers University of Wisconsin athletics. "Just as impressive, the Buckeyes are the only football program with a perfect APR (1000). It's safe to say the school is in good standing both in and out of the classroom."
Among other U.S. News & World Report academic rankings, Ohio State secured the No. 15 spot for Top Public Schools and No. 41 out of the 436 schools from the Best National Universities list.
Ohio State describes itself as an "academic powerhouse," being the nation's top producer of Fulbright Scholars and the No. 6 top producer of Peace Corps volunteers. One of the largest universities in the U.S., Ohio State recorded a total enrollment of 66,901 in 2024, boasts an 18:1 student-to-faculty ratio, and offers more than 12,000 courses across its 18 colleges and schools.
No. 1: Northwestern University
No. 2: University of California, Los Angeles
No. 3: University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
No. 4: University of Southern California
No. 5: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
No. 6: University of Wisconsin-Madison
No. 7 (tie): The Ohio State University
No. 7 (tie): Rutgers University-New Brunswick
No. 9: University of Maryland, College Park
No. 10 (tie): Purdue University-West Lafayette
No. 10 (tie): University of Washington
No. 12: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
No. 13 (tie): Michigan State University
No. 13 (tie): The Pennsylvania State University
No. 15: Indiana University-Bloomington
No. 16: University of Iowa
No. 17: University of Oregon
No. 18: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Forget football. See where Ohio State ranks academically in Big Ten
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USA Today
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Ranking Oregon Ducks' 2025 opponents from easiest to toughest, per ESPN FPI
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While we may have an idea, a tool that was released this week — ESPN's Football Power Index — can help us. For those unfamiliar with ESPN's FPI, it is an index that 'relies on past performance on offense and defense, returning and transfer production and past recruiting data for players on the roster to form a rating.' In essence, it's ESPN's way of declaring the top teams in the nation, looking at their roster, their schedule, their percentage to win each game, and where that ultimately lands them after the season comes to an end. Here's how the FPI see's Oregon's schedule broken down, from the easiest game on the docket to the toughest: No. 12 — Week 1 vs. Montana State Bobcats National FPI Rank: None As an FCS team, Montana State doesn't get an FPI score from ESPN, but don't let that allow you to look past the Bobcats. Last season, they lost to the North Dakota State Bison in the FCS National Championship Game, which was their second loss in the title game since 2021. 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New York Times
an hour ago
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Five early Ohio State predictions for 2025: Will Michigan, Big Ten droughts end?
Ohio State opens the 2025 college football season against Texas just 12 short weeks from Saturday. Why not make some early predictions? Looking back at my early 2024 predictions last June, I went three-for-five. I was right about Ohio State getting 14 draft picks, Will Howard winning the quarterback battle and the Buckeyes finishing with the nation's top total defense for the first time since 2019. Advertisement Let's try to improve this year. Does this seem obvious? Maybe. But this quarterback competition is more of a battle than last year between Will Howard and Devin Brown, so don't underestimate the uncertainty this summer. I would give Sayin, a five-star recruit in the Class of 2024, a slim lead over Lincoln Kienholz, a four-star recruit in 2023, because of his strong spring game. The Alabama transfer completed 17 of 24 passes for 175 yards and one touchdown in the spring game, while Kienholz struggled in the first half but finished strong with 158 yards and two touchdowns. 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If I keep predicting a Big Ten championship, it's bound to happen one season, right? Well this year is slightly different, because I think Ohio State will lose two games in the regular season again but this time make it to Indianapolis. The prediction here is that Ohio State will lose to open the season against Texas, which has no impact on the Big Ten race. It will beat Penn State. And it will lose for the fifth consecutive time to Michigan. I think Ohio State will be the better team, but without seeing the revamped defense and new quarterback, it's hard for me to pick Ohio State outright on the road after what's happened the past four seasons in The Game. I could see an 11-1 season, but for now let's go with the assumption that the Buckeyes' rivalry misery continues in a loss to Michigan. If it's their only Big Ten loss, there's still a good path to the conference title. Oregon and Penn State are the two other biggest contenders, and they play each other on Sept. 27. A guaranteed loss for one of them opens up a path for a one-conference-loss Ohio State to get in if the Buckeyes can beat the Nittany Lions at home. I think Ohio State has the team capable of beating Penn State at home, although the defensive line will need to take a step before that November matchup. I like the potential of this year's Ohio State's team. It's OK for the Buckeyes to not be at their peak in the first week of the season, but there's a real possibility that they reach that later, stumble again against Michigan, and win their first Big Ten championship since 2020 anyway. The Buckeyes have had a receiver drafted in the first round in each of the past four years. It began with Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave in 2022 and continued with Jaxon Smith-Njigba in 2023, Marvin Harrison Jr. in 2024 and Emeka Egbuka in 2025. Jeremiah Smith will be a first-round pick in 2027, but if Ohio State is going to carry on that streak in 2026, it'll have to be Tate. Advertisement From a pure physical standpoint, Tate has the tools to be a successful NFL receiver. He's a 6-foot-3, 191-pound receiver who runs crisp routes and has good hands. He's dropped just five passes in two seasons, according to TruMedia, totaling 70 catches for 997 yards and five touchdowns. Tate has been overshadowed on the Ohio State roster for the past two seasons, first as a freshman by Harrison and Egbuka and then last year by Smith and Egbuka. This is the former five-star recruit's chance to get more snaps and put his talent on full display. He's already one of the top draft-eligible receivers coming into the season, but a potential breakout season could solidify him as a first-round pick. If that's the case, how long does Ohio State's streak go? If Smith is drafted in 2027, there's a host of other five-star receivers coming in who could keep it going in 2028 and beyond. (Photo of Carnell Tate: Joseph Maiorana / Imagn Images)
New York Times
2 hours ago
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Notre Dame mailbag: Is it over with USC? Fun watching film with Marcus Freeman?
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Welcome back to the Notre Dame mailbag. You've got questions, so let's get started. Note: Submitted questions have been edited for clarity and length. As the USC series appears to be approaching its end, how much of the blame falls on the Big Ten essentially holding USC hostage? Do you think this could be a sign of things to come as the wheel of college football 'progress' churns toward a Big Ten/SEC super league, and is there a world in which Notre Dame is blackballed from scheduling games against foes from those conferences? — Jack Z. For starters, the Big Ten didn't force USC to join, destroying the Pac-12 in the process. That was USC's decision, which all but dragged UCLA, Washington and Oregon to follow the Trojans' lead, toppling a conference and scattering it across the Big 12 and ACC. Advertisement As for the 'sign of things to come' aspect of scheduling, it's worth monitoring. It's also worth acknowledging Notre Dame has home-and-home agreements with Alabama, Florida, Texas, Texas A&M, Purdue, Michigan State, Arkansas, Indiana and Michigan on future schedules. Ohio State just came off as a home-and-home. The Shamrock Series created a neutral-and-neutral against Wisconsin. Our 2025 home game times are SET ☘️👀 📆 Mark your calendars 📆 🎟️ #GoIrish☘️ — Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) May 12, 2025 As much as both leagues feel like they're taking their scheduling ball and going home, it's hard to imagine those conferences shunning Notre Dame (and the money associated with the Irish) to prove some high-minded point. The 'join a conference!' crowd is primarily fans and a few coaches. It never seems to be from the administrators running the sport. The adults in the room know Notre Dame is good for business. None of that means the USC series is on solid ground, however. But there's a difference between playing a home-and-home with Notre Dame and being locked into a perpetual series with the Irish. I'd doubt the teams cycling through Notre Dame's schedule would jump at the chance to play Notre Dame every year on top of their SEC or Big Ten slates. As much as USC is to blame for the current stalemate in the series, Lincoln Riley's willingness to walk away from one of the great rivalries in the sport makes sense for College Football Playoff contention purposes. (Yes, this assumes Riley can build a CFP-contending roster.) USC traveled to Michigan, Maryland and Minnesota last year. This year, it's got trips to Illinois, Purdue, Nebraska and that October date at Notre Dame. The Trojans don't think they need that additional travel to South Bend. USC probably doesn't want the extra competition, either, considering it just went 7-5 and finished ninth in the conference. Advertisement Notre Dame probably needs the series more than USC does. But the Trojans need a win over the Irish to validate Riley's project, which feels tenuous at best. Too many cautious programs and coaches worry about the schedule being too hard. They should spend more time on the upside of winning signature games. Marcus Freeman has already proved himself that way, not just by beating USC but by making the CFP run. Riley is much less defined, but a potential win over Notre Dame may change the perceptions around USC. He just needs to have the constitution to take on that challenge. It's not clear that he does. What's one thing you learned breaking down film with Freeman that maybe felt different from the previous versions of the series with players? — Terence M. Thanks for checking out that story. It was a lot of fun. The biggest difference between sitting down with the head coach instead of a player was understanding all the moving parts of the play opposed to just diving deep with one player on one assignment. But what struck me most going over the plays was how much there was to critique and how Freeman jumped all over it. Like, he was still bothered by receivers missing blocks in games that happened seven months ago. Games Notre Dame won! He even told me a couple of plays to go watch on my own, plays that had stuck with him that much. Freeman talks a lot in news conferences about not being outcome-driven and chasing perfection, but after watching just eight plays with him, I wonder if there are more than a dozen 'perfect plays' in a 150-play game. Maybe this shouldn't be a surprise, but getting 11 college kids to do the exact right thing at the exact right time seems really, really difficult. Is the lack of a 2027 quarterback offer a sign of maturity and incorporating lessons learned after being burned by longtime QB decommits, or a sign of the downside of having a season that stretches so deep into January? — Andrew B. It's the downside of having a season stretch until Jan. 20. Notre Dame couldn't use the winter contact period to evaluate quarterbacks in person, which is how the staff would have played it under normal circumstances. Whether it was offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock or quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli, they'd have crisscrossed the country to see quarterbacks throw in person. Instead, they were preparing for the national championship game. And yeah, that's a trade Notre Dame would be willing to make every year, even if it means being behind in quarterback recruiting. Advertisement For the sake of context, it's worth remembering that Notre Dame landed four-star quarterback Noah Grubbs about this time last summer, just before Irish Invasion. But he'd camped at Notre Dame a year earlier and the Irish staff had been targeting him for months. The Deuce Knight situation was similar, with the Mississippi product targeted during the summer and committing before the Ohio State game two years ago. CJ Carr committed the summer before his junior year, same with Tyler Buchner and Steve Angeli. It's not like Notre Dame can't pivot late when forced to adjust, landing Kenny Minchey in November of his senior year or grabbing Blake Hebert in October of his senior year. The Minchey/Hebert timelines are not ideal because they delay putting a face on your recruiting class while also making it harder to pursue wideouts. Minchey was a late flip from Pitt after the Irish struggled to attract quarterbacks after landing Carr and missing on Dante Moore. Hebert was a reaction to Knight flipping to Auburn. I'm not entirely sure there's a 'lessons learned' element to quarterback recruiting this cycle as Notre Dame would chase Knight just the same this cycle as last. Would that be a smart move considering the 'fit' that's so important at Notre Dame? Debatable. Bottom line, quarterback recruiting is a crapshoot of the highest order. And that's true for everybody, not just Notre Dame. The most successful quarterback of the modern era was a three-star flip from Washington State, Ian Book. The highest-rated quarterbacks the Irish did sign haven't panned out: Brandon Wimbush, Tyler Buchner and Phil Jurkovec. And with the transfer portal available to Notre Dame, the penalty for missing at the position is simply a matter of money. There's always a Riley Leonard, Sam Hartman or Jack Coan available. So yes, Notre Dame needs to make a decision at quarterback for the Class of 2027 soon. I'd expect that to happen in the coming weeks. But with the uncertainty of the position combined with ability to get out of jail free (even if 'free' means a seven-figure investment), the Irish don't need to panic in making that quarterback call. Brian Kelly and Marcus Freeman capped their third years at Notre Dame with a run to the national title game. Which coach had the more impressive first three seasons — Kelly with his ground-up reinvention or Freeman's seemingly sustainable build (plus his overwhelming buy-in from the fan base)? — Ryan M. There aren't many places where Kelly should get the nod over Freeman with Notre Dame's fan base. This remains one. Kelly took a broken program and put it in the national championship game in three years. Freeman took a College Football Playoff regular and did the same. Notre Dame lost to Navy and UConn in the season before Kelly took over. Notre Dame went 11-1 and won its final six games by an average of 27.3 points in the season before Freeman took over as head coach. Advertisement As much as Year 3 under Freeman had a soul that Kelly's third season did not, thanks to the wins over Georgia and Penn State, it's hard to overstate the magic of 2012 when Notre Dame was the story of college football. Put another way, there was never a question last season if Notre Dame was relevant or capable of climbing the sport's mountain. Before Kelly's third season, it was an existential question if Notre Dame had been relegated to the has-been era of the sport. If Freeman proved people right about Notre Dame, Kelly had to first prove people wrong. Now the question is about sustaining success, which Freeman seems much more capable of doing. The university is more invested in football's success. The depth of recruiting is better. And as Ryan noted, the fan base is behind the head coach more now than then. I remember walking into the first practice before the 2013 season and telling another reporter it felt like we were going to cover three months of air coming out of the balloon. And that's what happened. Very little about Notre Dame football felt sturdy after Kelly's flirtation with the Eagles and the Manti Te'o nonsense. That's not the case today. Who ends up with more passing yards: CJ Carr/Kenny Minchey in 12 games in 2025 or Riley Leonard in 16 games in 2024? — Tommy R. To put Leonard's 178.8 passing yards per game in perspective, that ranked No. 89 nationally last season. If Carr/Minchey produce the same total of 2,861 yards during the regular season, it would amount to 238.4 yards per game, which would have ranked No. 36 nationally, between quarterbacks from Western Kentucky and Hawaii. Point being, we're not talking about some transcendental passing performance if Carr or Minchey do in the regular season what Leonard did in the entire season. So, give me Carr and/or Minchey to better Leonard's passing statistics. They both have more arm talent and a better receiver room, plus a better offensive line in front of them. Advertisement As for Leonard's 184 carries for 906 yards and 17 rushing touchdowns … that might be harder to replicate. Is there a new rivalry for Notre Dame that would interest you? — Peter B. This sounds like a great question for next week's fan survey. Not that I'm chasing USC off the schedule, but the Clemson series somewhat fills this slot if it comes to that. Creating new rivalries rarely seems to work … yet Irish versus Tigers somehow does. If USC dropped off the schedule as an every-season opponent, I'd run the slot into a higher-end Power 2 rotating series. Step back from rivalry and lean into novelty. Yes, I'd rather see USC every season, but what if Notre Dame swapped that over 10 years of home-and-homes with Oregon, LSU, Iowa, Auburn and Washington? (Top photo of Kenny Minchey: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
