It's one thing to knock Ohio State from its perch atop the conference. It's another thing entirely to keep the Buckeyes pinned down.
That has become doubly true in the 2000s. They slipped at the end of the John Cooper era but went straight from 7-5 to 14-0 under Jim Tressel in 2002 and finished in the top 10 for eight of nine years. After Tressel was forced to resign in 2011 and Ohio State went 6-7 under interim coach Luke Fickell that year, the Buckeyes responded by going 12-0 under Urban Meyer the following season.