COLUMBUS, Ohio — Nobody’s sports fandom traces back to the first time they watched their favorite team dominate an inferior opponent. Your memories are tethered to the games on the biggest and brightest stages, regardless of what time of year they happen.
Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork loves those games, too. He’d even love to put more of them on the football schedule past the three home-and-home series that fit that category. But he’s not going to do it at the expense of Ryan Day’s now championship-winning program, especially when there might no longer be a reason for him to do so.
“The fact that we’re playing Texas the next two years, Alabama the two years after that and Georgia down the road, if we’re going to keep playing the games, then it needs to add up in the playoff calculations,” Bjork said. Otherwise, you won’t see those games and I think that’d be sad for college football.”
The value of those games may or may not be worth the price anymore. Right now, there is no clear answer for those one year on the job. All Bjork knows right now is that he just wants the Buckeyes to play 16 games on their way to winning a national championship while not having a planned marquee non-conference opponent on its schedule for the first time since 2019. A trip to Oregon was planned in 2020 before a global pandemic killed it off, making the Ducks’ 2021 trip to Columbus the only part of that home-and-home possible between OSU and a then-Pac 12 team. A home-and-home against Notre Dame followed in 2022 and 2023.
Now, Texas is up with the Longhorns coming to Columbus on Aug. 30, followed by the Buckeyes heading to Austin, Texas, next season. An Alabama home-and-home is scheduled for 2027 and 2028, then one with Georgia in 2030 and 2031.
After that?
“TBD,” Bjork said. Seriously, you really need to understand why it looks like or do we keep those games. If there’s a different model that really doesn’t fit playing those kinds of games and it’s all about just being 12-0 or 11-1, then maybe we shouldn’t play those games. You have to put everything on the table. We’re not racing out to schedule out into the future. We want to see what this looks like. Right now, those games are on the books. But the SEC has a decision to make on do they go to nine games.”
Bjork put the ball in the SEC’s court in deciding whether or not a team from that conference ever faces the Buckeyes before December ever again after the 2031 season. While that conference has spent the past two months finding every possible microphone to voice its opinion about future College Football Playoff structures, the Big Ten’s most prominent university is pounding the table for one simple thing: consistency.
“We definitely think that consistency of conference games, the number should apply,” Bjork said. “If we’re gonna have all these models, playing nine games should be consistent across every conference. That is a position that I think is real.”
Regardless of what time the game is being played, having Texas on the schedule to open the season has added to the anticipation of 2025. It’s created one more thing for fans to look forward to while adding a few more stakes to a game being played in August. It’s 10 times better than just playing a lower-level non-conference opponent where the game is over by halftime and we’re all trying to find ways to discuss a game where the Buckeyes come into Ohio Stadium capable of picking its score.
These are the type of games people remember years from now and they shouldn’t be forced to live in the past to talk about them.
Bjork seems to agree with that sentiment. But he’s also interested in doing what’s best for Ohio State. He’s all for the marquee early-season matchup as long as the opponent on the other side is playing under the same rules and structure the Buckeyes are required to play under.
It’s inevitable that the CFP eventually expands to 16 teams and it could kill the non-conference game in the process. Bjork is keeping the ones already on Ohio State’s schedule. What happens after that is up to the other Power 4 conferences and their willingness to fall under one consistent set of rules.
“How these non-conference games play out, I think it’s too early,” Bjork said. ”But we’re keeping them. We’ll embrace it. We’ll go play. They have to do the same thing. They have to play us, too. Too early to tell what the future is.”
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