Where is Ohio State in average roster age for the 2026 season?

There's been a growing trend in college football, and that's to have a veteran team make a run toward big dreams, whether it be by retaining returning players or by luring experienced ones out of the transfer portal, the last three College Football Playoff national title winners all followed a similar formula.

Michigan in 2023, then Ohio State in 2024, and finally, Indiana last season.

So, it stands to reason that if trying to identify a team that has the potential to make a run in 2026, starting with a core of veteran players probably makes sense.

RotoWire recently did research and released the average age of every college football team for 2026, and there might be some bad news for Ohio State fans because the Buckeyes rank way down the list when it comes to the average age of the roster.

In fact, out of the 138 teams in FBS, OSU is ranked No.

128 in average age at 19.95 per player.

In some ways, it makes a lot of sense because the Buckeyes had a lot of experienced players depart from last season via the NFL draft and will count on a lot of younger players to step up in 2026.

That's even with the efforts to dip into the transfer portal to bring veteran guys in, or the average age could be worse.

Average Age of Every College Football Team, Ranked (2026) https://t.co/gN6OqaRNap RotoWireCFB (@RotoWireCFB) July 10, 2026 You can check out the list for yourself if you want to get an idea of what each team is dealing with, but what is worth noting is that the oldest team, by virtue of average age this season, is UTSA (21.02) from the Group of Five.

The oldest team among the Power Four teams is Oklahoma State (20.74).

The oldest team in the Big Ten is Michigan State (20.64), so maybe it's not all it's cracked up to be.

USC is the only team in the conference to have a younger roster with an average age of 19.87.

We'll see if the pattern holds in 2026, but it's also worth noting that having veteran players in the starting rotation and in key spots likely means more than the overall roster, so there are other variables at play here.

C ontact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes, and opinion.

Follow Phil Harrison on X.

This article originally appeared on Buckeyes Wire: Where is Ohio State in average roster age for the 2026 season?.