Ohio State’s matchup for this year’s CBS Sports Classic is set.
The Buckeyes will play UCLA in this year’s edition of the annual four-team December showcase, which also features North Carolina and Kentucky. The 2023 CBS Sports Classic will be played in Atlanta on Dec. 16, starting with a 3 p.m. game between Ohio State and UCLA followed by a 5 p.m. tilt between the Tar Heels and Wildcats.
It will be the fourth time the Buckeyes and Bruins meet each other in the CBS Sports Classic. Ohio State is 2-1 in those matchups; the Bruins won the first matchup in Las Vegas in 2016, but the Buckeyes have won the two most recent matchups in Chicago in 2018 and in Cleveland in 2020.
UCLA will be one of at least four Power 5 opponents for the Buckeyes during this year’s non-conference slate, which also includes a home game against Texas A&M (Nov. 10), a neutral-site matchup with Alabama in the Emerald Coast Classic (Nov. 24) and a game against West Virginia in Cleveland on Dec. 30. Ohio State could also potentially play Oregon in its final game of the Emerald Coast Classic in Niceville, Florida, on Nov. 25.
“This is the best and most challenging overall schedule we have put together in a few years,” Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann said when the rest of the non-conference schedule was released in June. “We have a preseason top 15 opponent coming to the Schottenstein Center in the early part of the year, a couple of preseason top 25 teams away from home and several good regional mid-major programs in the nonconference.”
