On their 140th birthday, The Sporting News decided to give back to the college football world by officially unveiling its ultimate 2020s College Football All-Decade Team. This prestigious roster is packed with the biggest names of the generation, including legendary Heisman Trophy winners, dominant national champions, and, of course, plenty of future first-round NFL picks. But out of everyone on the list, one name seemed to steal most of the flowers from former players and analysts alike: none other than Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith.

By punching his ticket to this exclusive club, he stands alone as the only active college player on the entire team. Every single one of his roster teammates has already packed their bags, said goodbye to college dorms, and graduated to multi-million dollar NFL Sundays.

Voters usually wait until players finish their careers before giving them all-time recognition. But Jeremiah Smith’s first two seasons in Columbus were so dominant that the committee had no choice but to put him on the list early. The former five-star stands completely alone on this list because his fellow 2020s offensive superstars, like Indiana’s Heisman-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza and Notre Dame’s running back Jeremiyah Love, have already jumped to the professional ranks in this year’s draft.

It’s worth noting he got it by the slimmest of margins. The Sporting News had a hard time picking between Smith and his predecessor, Marvin Harrison Jr. The Arizona Cardinals’ WR1 had a Smith-like career in Columbus, earning Unanimous All-American honors twice and registering 155 catches for 2,613 yards and 31 touchdowns.

Smith’s numbers stack up almost identically: 163 catches for 2,558 yards and 27 touchdowns, all in two years. What tipped the scale in his favor was leading the Buckeyes to the 2024 National Championship, the one line on the résumé Harrison never got to add.

The Rest Of The Historic All-Decade Offense

You truly can’t go wrong with either Ohio State receiver, but the rest of the offense reads like a murderer’s row of the decade’s best. Alabama’s 2020 Heisman winner Devonta Smith takes the other receiver spot. At tight end, Georgia’s two-time Mackey Award winner Brock Bowers gets the nod. Boise State’s 2025 Maxwell Award winner Ashton Jeanty leads the backfield, with former Notre Dame star and current Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love as RB2.

Rounding out the offensive line: Michigan’s Zak Zinter at guard, Alabama’s Landon Dickerson at center, Texas’ Kelvin Banks Jr. and Utah’s Spencer Fano at tackle, and Kansas State’s Cooper Beebe at guard.

For Buckeye fans, the clock is already ticking to appreciate what they have in Columbus. Smith has all but confirmed that the 2026 season will be his last in scarlet and gray.

“It’s probably my last season here, but it’s gonna be a show,” Smith said at Big Ten Media Days. “It’s my obligation to go out for hopefully my last season and put on a show for Buckeye Nation.”

He’s fully expected to declare for the 2027 NFL Draft as soon as the season ends, with draft experts already projecting him as a locked-in top-three pick. Before he makes that walk across the NFL stage, though, Smith has unfinished business in Columbus. Beyond the obvious chase for a Biletnikoff and a Heisman, he’s got his eye on one specific record still held by the receiver he narrowly beat out for this all-decade nod’s predecessor in program lore: Devonta Smith.

“I want year three to be crazy. I want to have a DeVonta Smith-type senior season, something like that,” Smith said.

Devonta Smith’s 2020 season remains one of the greatest a college receiver has ever put together: 1,856 receiving yards and 23 touchdowns for Alabama, a run that carried the Crimson Tide to a national championship and earned him the Heisman Trophy outright.

Matching that will be brutally difficult. Smith is going to see double coverage on essentially every snap next season, the price of being the best receiver on the roster for three years running. But if his first two seasons in Columbus proved anything, it’s that betting against him has been a losing proposition so far.