How Good Is Mike Gundy With and Against Ranked Teams?

Earlier this week we started breaking down all 94 of Mike Gundy’s wins, and I asked you guys for different variations you wanted to see. One of the most common I saw was Gundy’s squads when ranked and against ranked teams. Cool. Let’s do it. I took these from CFB Reference which I believe uses AP ranking at the time of a given game. How does OSU fare?

When Unranked: 39-26 (60%)
When ranked in the top 25: 55-21 (72%)
When ranked in the top 20: 46-18 (72%)
When ranked in the top 15: 31-16 (66%)
When ranked in the top 10: 16-8 (66%)
When ranked in the top 5: 6-3 (66%)

What about when playing ranked teams?

When playing unranked teams: 77-19 (80%)
When playing top 25 teams: 17-28 (38%)
When playing top 15 teams: 9-24 (39%)
When playing top 10 teams: 5-14 (26%)

So … not very good. But a lot of those were in 2005-2007 when OSU still stunk. What about as a ranked team against other ranked teams?

When OSU and opponent are ranked: 12-14 (46%)
When OSU is top 20 and opponent is ranked: 12-13 (48%)
When OSU is top 10 and opponent is ranked: 6-6 (50%)
When OSU and opponent are both top 10: 2-4 (33%)

What about home and away?

When OSU is top 25 at home: 28-8 (78%)
When OSU is top 25 on the road: 27-13 (68%)
When OSU faces top 25 at home: 10-14 (42%)
When OSU faces top 25 on road: 7-14 (33%)

I suppose the ones that stick out are that OSU wins at just a 66 percent clip when ranked inside the top 15, 10 and 5. It seems like a top 10 team should be winning around 75 percent of the time (small sample size, I realize).

Also the record against unranked teams is better than I would have thought given the first 2-3 years of Gundy’s tenure. The record against top 25 teams is worse than I thought it would be (and probably should be). I mean, 38 percent against top 25 teams? That’s not good.

It seems like OSU is a solid top 25 team on the road too — nearly 70 percent even as a ranked squad is salty. The record against top 25 teams at home should be better though.

All in all some fun July fodder to think about going into the season, and a good reference when OSU goes to TCU, Kansas State and OU in a few months.