Buckeye fans named best in world

Ohio State's J.T. Barrett celebrates with fans following the team's Big Ten championship game against Wisconsin on Dec. 3.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

It’s often said Ohio State football closely resembles a religion. People around Ohio — and Columbus, in particular — show a unique devotion and reverence for the Buckeyes normally saved for Sundays at church.

A ranking from the folks at FanSided confirms this and put OSU fans in rare company, naming OSU as the top fanbase in the world in its Fandom250 list. It appears as though Buckeye fans’ passion for everything scarlet and gray is a well-known commodity.

The Buckeyes, who also ranked tops among college fanbases, led a list that also featured the television show Game of Thrones, actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Star Wars, and MMA fighter Conor McGregor in the top five. The Alabama Crimson Tide was the next highest college program at No. 9; Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James was 11th; and Disney was 22nd. The University of Michigan’s athletic program was ranked 114th.

In the college ranking, Alabama, Notre Dame, North Carolina, and Oklahoma rounded out the top five. Penn State was 10th, Michigan came in at 11, and Wisconsin was 13th.

Ohio State fans cheer against Oklahoma during the first quarter September 9 in Columbus.

According to the report, “Over the course of a year, FanSided editors meet multiple times to discuss, study and rank fandoms. Weight is given to what is ‘hot’ or buzzworthy over the course of the year. What happened in a calendar year is a large component of the equation. But fandoms get points for longevity, size, and worth as well.”

Ohio State certainly checks all those boxes. Consider this — its football program was valued at more than $1.5 billion according to a Wall Street Journal report; the Buckeyes were named the Associated Press all-time best program last year; and the team recently claimed its eighth Big Ten championship in the last 16 years.

It’s clear the rest of the world knows what Buckeye fans already claim — they’re the best damn fans in the land.