What is a successful regular season for Ohio State?

Throughout the year, we will be asking and answering questions about various Ohio State teams, the players, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33, or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email What is a successful regular season.

The time has come: in just four days, the 2026-27 Ohio State football Buckeyes will take to the field for the first official time as they host the Ball State Fighting David Lettermans. That will be the amuse-bouche of what should be one of the most challenging and entertaining regular seasons that we have seen in many years.

So, as we continue to work our way through the first game week of the season, we have two questions for you in this week’s fan survey. First, given the opponents on this fall’s schedule, what would you consider a successful regular season? We’ve put together six options for you to choose from in the survey below.

Then, since the Buckeyes do play this week, we also want you to pick the margin of victory for Saturday’s game.

Take a look at the options below, then vote in the survey at the bottom of the article. On Saturday morning, before the game kicks off, we will share the results, so make sure to check back in with us in a few days. And if you want to explain your rationale or add another option, head down to the comments and break it down.

Obviously, we all want the Buckeyes to go undefeated, but I think in the 12-team College Football Playoff Era and in a season with the likes of Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Oregon, Texas, and USC on the schedule, I think that there is wiggle room for the realistic fans amongst us to entertain the fact that something short of 12-0 could be a success.

Of course, we couldn’t make it too straightforward, so the options do have some level of complication mixed in, but I think the results should give us a pretty good insight into where Buckeye Nation’s collective head is when it comes to expectations this fall.

This one is a bit easier to digest. The Buckeyes are 50.5-point favorites (which I think is uncomfortably too high, considering they won’t want to show anything the week before Texas) and the gold standard of college football analytics SP+ has the game at 60.4 points, which is even more absurd.

Below, I’ve got a few options for margins of victory for you to choose from. Will Ryan Day, Arthur Smith, and Matt Patricia put up a major ass-kicking to start the season? Or will they keep things close to the vest (Jim Tressel is being inducted into the Ring of Honor on Saturday, after all)? Let us know what you think.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NCAA. Throughout the year, we ask questions of the most plugged-in OSU fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

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