COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Picture a weird world where Ohio State's football program loses six games in back-to-back years. In that world, the Buckeyes are trapped in that irrelevant middle area between awfulness and national relevance.

If that sounds like an absurd premise to a fictional television show to you, don't feel bad. You're not alone. A few Big Ten coaches found it silly, too.

What would it take for Ohio State to be down?

"I don't know," Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald said, fighting off the giggles. "I've never seen it before in my lifetime."

Then he let out a huge cackle. The guy actually cracked up.

Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio -- a former Buckeyes defensive coordinator who helped the program win a national championship in 2002 -- had a similar reaction. Dantonio didn't quite burst into laughter like Fitzgerald, but he made a joke.

What would have to happen for Ohio State to be down?

"They'd have to quit giving scholarships," Dantonio said. When the laughter subsided, he added: "I don't see that happening."

Is Ohio State the most indestructible team in college football?

In the last 50 years, college football's most storied programs have all had stretches of being down. Alabama, Notre Dame, Texas, USC, Florida, Michigan -- everyone -- has spent time being down. Ohio State, somehow, has avoided those stretches.

What does "being down" mean? Back-to-back seasons or longer stretches of having a winning percentage below .600. In the last five decades, Ohio State has only had five seasons when its winning percentage wasn't at least .600, and only once in back-to-back years.

It's happened to Michigan eight times, but five of them happened in the last decade. In six of Notre Dame's last nine seasons, the Irish have lost five games or more.

How about Alabama? In the 1990s, the Crimson Tide had five seasons of five or more losses. Texas? In the last six years, the Longhorns have lost at least five games in all but one of the seasons. The exception was a four-loss year.

You get the point.

So, again: Is Ohio State the most indestructible team in college football?

Asking Big Ten coaches what it would take for Ohio State to be down provided a unique window into why the Buckeyes have been so consistently good. That question gave coaches a chance to praise Ohio State while indirectly explaining the Buckeyes' advantages and why it's harder to win elsewhere, like at their own schools.

We narrowed it down to four major things that can happen to a program that leads to being down:

1. NCAA sanctions: What could ruin a program faster than major NCAA sanctions? Nothing, because those sanctions lead to coaches being fired and penalties like scholarship reductions. Oftentimes, major NCAA issues lead to some major issues in fielding a competitive team.

Ohio State had NCAA violations that came to light in 2010 that led to the dismissal of coach Jim Tressel, but the program avoided a major downturn because Urban Meyer fell out of the sky and saved the program.

What would it take for Ohio State to fall off?

"The only thing that could ever happen (to Ohio State), and I don't know if this would cause them to drop, is a major, major violation where they would get stifled from recruiting for years," Purdue coach and former Ohio State assistant Darrell Hazell said. "It would have to be major sanctions for multiple, multiple years for those guys ever to drop. And I don't ever see that happening."

2. Bad recruiting: Guess who suggested this one first? Yep, Meyer himself. Signing poor recruiting classes that include poor talent and character evaluation can take a program off its path.

"You make 10 mistakes in recruiting, you're done. you're done," Meyer said. "You're having a couple down years like you said those teams have had. And you make mistakes because of lack of information.

"We haven't had much attrition, "Meyer added. "If you look back, we have guys leave for the pros, but you don't see often -- we've had a few, but everyone has that -- where they're released from their scholarship, they're transferring. I watch that."

It's all recruiting.

3. Bad hires: Ohio State has only had six head coaches since 1951 -- which includes Luke Fickell's one year in 2011 -- so it hasn't had much turnover. All of those coaches, from Woody Hayes to Earle Bruce to Jim Tressel to Meyer, have had a ton of success. Consistency is stability.

But could Ohio State fall off after Meyer leaves with the wrong hire? Of course.

"It would take poor leadership in the program," Rutgers coach and former Ohio State assistant Chris Ash said. "All of those coaches have been tremendous leaders and tremendous coaches who have built great teams there."

What if Meyer wasn't hired in 2012? What if someone else was? Would Ohio State be on top of the college football world right now? Who knows.

But Ohio State isn't immune to the wrong hire. They've just avoided it.

"I think it would take dysfunction or a lack of leadership for them to be down," Fitzgerald said. "A lack of leadership in coaching, a lack of leadership in the athletic director position, a lack of leadership in the hierarchy of the university."

4. Schools invading your territory: Ohio State loves its geographical positioning because it's the only program in college football that is the only major university in such a talent-rich state. You could make the argument for Rutgers, too -- Ash certainly tried -- but the Buckeyes have a stranglehold on all of its in-state talent.

Territory coincides with recruiting, and no other program has really come in and challenge Ohio State work for elite Ohio prospects. Michigan has made the Buckeyes pay at times in the past, but, historically Buckeye State talent turns into Buckeyes. That's a major advantage in assembling a team.

"Having coached there and understanding the situation, I don't know that there are many places in the country -- I can't really think of one -- that has sole ownership of a state," Dantonio said, "in terms of the only major university right in the middle of the state that produced 172 Division 1-A players a year."

There are shifts in territories everywhere. A prime example is in Texas with the recent rise of Baylor, TCU and Texas A&M making things difficult on the Longhorns.

No such fluctuation in territory ownership has ever existed in Ohio.

So one final time: Is Ohio State the most indestructible program in college football?