1968. Final AP Poll ranked 20th.
Yes, Ohio has received votes a few times in the past few years, but 1968 was the one and only year Ohio has actually ever been ranked in the top 25.
Were the no polls in 1960? Because I'm sure we would have been ranked then if there were... Just wondering
For several years before 1960 and up to 1960 we were in a short-lived "College Division" and were not eligible to receive votes. In 1961 we again moved up to the "University Division." It was sort of like an early version of the old 1-AA.
Ive always wondered about this and could never find much information about it. So were we not really considered division 1 then? Was the MAC essentially an FCS conference?
Yes, for several years that would have been essentially correct. I'm not exactly sure what year the College Division was created, but in part of the 1950s I guess we were in this classification. Before that there were no such formal divisions. Oh, look what I found on Wikipedia:
| Years |
Division |
| 1906–1955 |
None |
| 1956–1972 |
NCAA University Division (Major College), College Division (Small College) |
| 1973–present |
NCAA Division I, Division II, Division III |
| 1978–2006 |
NCAA Division I-A, NCAA Division I-AA (Division I football only), Division II, Division III |
| 2006–present |
NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Division I Football Championship Subdivision (Division I football only), Division II, Division III |
So it appears that we were in this College Division from 1956 until 1961. As I recall in 1961 several MAC teams, including Ohio, became University Division members. Then the following year 1962 the rest of the conference was elevated because by playing those schools already elevated they were then playing the majority of their games against University Division teams.