I was working on a post about the scholarship increases coming to Buckeye sports, and then the Buckeyes finally went and posted a schedule prior to a week before the season. Those are the breaks, and we’ll just have to be okay with them. On to the subject at hand.
Ohio State’s 2025 schedule dropped and it certainly is interesting. The complete change in tack from last year is readily apparent. This year’s team will beat up on most of the ASUN conference yet again, starting with Utah at home, and working through the rest of the teams by month’s end.
This is the first time I’ve ever seen Ohio State play 6 February games, though it makes sense given the level of competition. After rampaging through the ASUN (hopefully), the Buckeyes will face strong head winds as they take on the Cavaliers of Virginia at home. That’s a stunning turn of events, as I was pretty sure the Buckeyes gave up a home game last year to get demolished by the Cavs at a neutral site. This will be the first big test for Ohio State, in the team’s sixth game of the season. I’1l preview that game, and all others, later, but for now it’s good to note that not every out of conference game is going to be a cupcake.
As the calendar moves into March, Ohio State will take on a former Buckeye coach when it hosts Bryant. The Bulldogs have been tough in recent years, and the Buckeyes will be getting no breaks as they move into March. Halfway through the season, Ohio State will finally leave its cozy confines as they go back to back away games against Notre Dame and Denver.
After the matchup against Matt Brown’s Pioneers, the Buckeyes start conference play. Ohio State will travel to Penn State, Johns Hopkins, and their rivals, while hosting Rutgers and
Maryland. As always, one of the toughest conferences in the country gives little room for error. Unless it’s Rutgers.
I alluded to it above, but this schedule is remarkably different from last year’s. Two additional games, for starters, lay out a 14-game slate. That’s the most Ohio State has played in a long, long time in the regular season. Ohio State played 16 games in 2022, but that included a first round tournament loss. The year when the Buckeyes pissed off Notre Dame so much that the Kavanaghs won two straight titles for Notre Dame.
Furthermore, the Buckeyes dialed back the schedule in a significant way. After getting shellacked again and again, Cornell has disappeared from the schedule. Virginia, Notre Dame, and Denver are all very, very good out of conference games, don’t get me wrong. But scheduling the entire ASUN seems a bit excessive. Dartmouth is ascending, so playing the Big Green wouldn’t have been a bad idea again. Another Ivy team, or a CAA squad would have been good mid-tier competition to ease the transition from Cleveland State to VIRGINIA.
Switching out an ASUN for one of the Ivy’s or a CAA team would probably be the sweet spot for Ohio State. Easy warmups, some solid competition to up difficulty, then swinging for the fences prior to conference play would be a good policy year in and year out. As it stands, Buckeyes probably need to beat two of the Virginia, Notre Dame, and Denver triumvirate if they want to sniff a national tournament berth. Some really big games at the end of February and all through March. Fortunately, the biggest games generally have at least a week between them.
Full Schedule:
1 Feb Utah
4 Feb Detroit Mercy
8 Feb Cleveland State
11 Feb Bellarmine
15 Feb Air Force
22 Feb Virginia
1 Mar Bryant
8 Mar @Notre Dame
16 Mar @Denver
22 Mar @Penn State
29 Mar Rutgers
5 Apr @Johns Hopkins
12 Apr Maryland
19 Apr @TTUN
26 Apr BIG Tournament opener
One big positive: we'll get to enjoy a ton of Buckeye lacrosse this season! Wonderful gift for us all. Hopefully we will be rewarded with a great season, and deep postseason run.
Go Bucks!
