Your (almost) daily dose of good-natured, Ohio State banter.
From now until preseason camp starts in August, Land-Grant Holy Land will be writing articles around a different theme every week. This week is all about this season’s marquee matchups. Whether they feature the Buckeyes, other Big Ten schools, or major teams across the country. You can catch up on all of the Theme Week content here and all of our ”Game of the Year” articles here.
Ohio State football’s 2025 regular season schedule certainly is a lot juicier than the 2024 schedule looked heading into the season. The non-conference schedule last year for the Buckeyes was a joke, as Ryan Day’s team had no trouble getting past Akron, Western Michigan, and Marshall. Conference play saw Ohio State face some more challenges with games against Oregon, Penn State, and Michigan. Indiana provided the Buckeyes with a nice surprise by entering the November contest in Columbus with an undefeated record.
This season’s schedule starts off with a bang with a playoff rematch between Texas and Ohio State at Ohio Stadium in late August. Once conference play hits, the Buckeyes face some tough matchups on the road against Washington, Illinois, and Michigan, along with a home tilt with Penn State, which is the top preseason candidate for Game of the Year in the Big Ten. If Ohio State is able to navigate its regular season schedule undefeated, there should be no question about the Buckeyes being the top seed in this year’s playoff.
Despite Ohio State having a strong schedule this season, there are always ways it can be made better. Unlike last year, there won’t be questions about schedule strength, especially when it comes to the non-conference portion of the schedule. When it comes to the Big Ten, the Buckeyes played the three other teams in the conference that made the playoff. This year could see similar results, as Illinois, Penn State, and maybe even Michigan are being seen as contenders to make the playoff.
What we want to know is what team you would have liked to see Ohio State play this season. Maybe you want to replace Grambling since they are an FCS team with another high-profile FBS squad. Or there could be another Big Ten team you wish the Buckeyes were playing. It’s not necessary to mention the game you would replace with the game with your preferred opponent.
Today’s question: Which team do you wish was on Ohio State’s schedule this season?
We’d love to hear your choices. Either respond to us on Twitter at @Landgrant33 or leave your choice in the comments.
Brett’s answer: USC
So far, the Big Ten’s scheduling when it comes to the four teams from the Pac-12 that joined the conference last season has been largely underwhelming. I understand the conference can’t match Ohio State up with all four new teams over their first two years in the league, but they certainly can do better than what they have done so far. Last year, the Buckeyes played at Oregon, which was one of the biggest games of the regular season, with the two teams meeting again in the Rose Bowl in the College Football Playoff. This year Ohio State will travel to Washington in late September, followed by hosting UCLA in November.
What’s missing from Ohio State’s schedule is a game with USC. The Buckeyes and Trojans have met in numerous Rose Bowls, played a home-and-home series last decade, along with meeting in the Cotton Bowl in 2018. It would have been ridiculously easy to swap out UCLA in Columbus for a game against USC in Ohio’s capital city. Aside from Big Ten games against Illinois, Michigan, and Oregon, the Trojans don’t really have all that difficult of a conference schedule, so it’s not like they could say the Big Ten would be picking on them by loading up their schedule. Plus, this is the second straight year USC will be playing Michigan, while a number of other schools have yet to play the Trojans since they joined the conference.
Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images
Not only would the history between the two programs make it a fun game to watch, but there also would be plenty on the line since it feels like USC could be one of those fringe playoff teams, especially with their regular season schedule, which isn’t terribly challenging. I know I’d definitely be interested in seeing how the Trojans would respond to coming to Ohio in November for a game that could possibly decide whether they’d be in the mix for the College Football Playoff. If Lincoln Riley wanted to shake off talk of his team being soft, they would be able to make some people eat crow with an inspired performance against the Buckeyes.
How fun would it be as an Ohio State fan to watch a November that consisted of games against Penn State, USC, and Michigan? While some might not want the Buckeyes to be challenged so much in the last month of the regular season, I would welcome these tests for a young team ahead of a possible playoff appearance. Since the schedules are set, I’ll just have to wait until 2026 when the Buckeyes host USC, followed by a trip to Los Angeles in 2027.
Matt’s answer: Clemson
I was torn on this one, because initially I wanted to go with a Big Ten team, since that would seem to be the most logical and possible answer to this type of question. My first thought was to go with Oregon. Following the two games that the Bucks and the Ducks played last season, it would be nice to have a rubber match, despite the fact that Ohio State’s victory was obviously far more meaningful than Oregon’s. And when you factor in the recruiting battles that the two teams have been engaged in recently (with the Ducks outspending OSU at nearly every turn), another matchup between the two teams would have come with a lot of drama.
However, the Buckeyes got their revenge against Oregon in the Rose Bowl last season, and I don’t really know that I can get super hyped up about a third game in one calendar year. So, I started looking farther afield, and landed on a team that I dislike as much as any non-rival, Blabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers.
Anderson Independent Mail-Imagn Images
After a few years stuck in the college football wilderness, a lot of analysts and prognosticators are picking the Tigers to be back toward the top of the sport again this season. The recent Clemson downswing was started by the Buckeyes’ 49-28 win in the 2021 Sugar Bowl. Since then, Dabo’s squad has been mediocre, at least by upper-echelon CFB standards.
Since the Sugar Bowl loss, Clemson has gone 40-14 and hasn’t finished higher than 11th in either the AP or Coaches Poll, a far cry from contending for the top spot in the sport year in and year out.
So, as the Tigers supposedly look to reclaim a position amongst the sport’s elite, I would have loved for them to be on the Buckeyes’ schedule this season. There would have been a beautifully poetic, full-circle symmetry to Ohio State beginning Clemson’s downfall with a three-touchdown beatdown, and then — I believe — ending the Tigers’ “return” to relevance with another three-score win.
ESPN’s Football Power Index currently has OSU as a 6.5-point favorite in this hypothetical matchup, but given the history between the two schools, and Dark Ryan Day now fully in his bag, I think that is way too low for a margin of victory.
Nonetheless, even if I remove my scarlet and gray colored glasses, I would love for the Buckeyes to have the opportunity to knock Clemson back to the mediocrity that it has inhabited over the past four seasons.