Oklahoma is Ohio State's marquee opponent this season. Both schools scheduled the series with the return leg for 2017 to mark the 40-year anniversary of "The Kick" from Uwe von Schamann. That game-winning field goal serves as one of the most iconic moments in Oklahoma's storied history and serves as a sore spot for older Ohio State fans who remember that game well.
Fans with a more historical focus of Ohio State football will also appreciate how conspicuous the 2016-2017 series is from another perspective. It's a rare game against a team from the current Big 12. All things considered, Ohio State had not looked to that conference for its non-conference schedules as often as it has looked further west to the current Pac-12 for big-name opponents.
We have collected granular data on all Ohio State schedules to unpack how Ohio State has scheduled its non-conference competition since joining the current Big Ten in 1913. The graph below summarizes all non-conference opponents, excluding bowl games, for Ohio State by decade since the 1940s. For clarity, it lumps all previous versions of the current Pac-12 (i.e. AAWU, PCC, Pac-8, Pac-10) and current Big 12 (i.e. Big 6, Big 7, Big 8) together. We exclude earlier decades because most teams that appeared on Ohio State's schedule had no Division-I conference or were non-majors. In addition, we retain the coding of the conference in which the program was when it played Ohio State. Thus, Missouri and Texas A&M count toward the Big XII and Southwest Conference rather than the SEC.
Ohio State's Non-Conference Opponents, by Decade and Conference (1940s-present)
A few interesting patterns emerge. First, the current Big 12 was once Ohio State's favorite conference for scheduling non-conference competition. Rather, Missouri was. Ohio State played Missouri in eight consecutive seasons from 1941 to 1949. All except the 1945 encounter were in Ohio Stadium. The Buckeyes won seven of those contests and tied the 1946 season-opener.
Those eight games against Missouri were more than the six Ohio State played against teams from what is now the Pac-12. Incidentally, those were all against one team too. The Buckeyes scheduled USC for 1941, 1942, 1946, 1947, 1948, and 1949. The 1941, 1946, and 1949 contests were at the Coliseum and the 1949 game even saw both teams ranked (Ohio State at No. 11, USC at No. 8). Ohio State finished the decade 4-1-1 against USC, tying that ranked encounter in 1949 and losing in Ohio Stadium in 1947.
In fact, both USC and Missouri stand out as some of Ohio State's favorite non-conference opponents. Only Pitt has appeared more often on Ohio State's non-conference schedule since the Buckeyes dropped Ohio Athletic Conference opponents in 1935. Six of the top ten most frequent non-conference opponents come from the Pac-12 as well.
| Team | Appearances | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pitt | 21 | OSU: 17-4. Last game: 1996 (W, 72-0) |
| USC | 16 | OSU: 7-8-1. Last game: 2009 (L, 18-15) |
| Missouri | 12 | OSU: 10-1-1. Last game: 1998 (W, 35-14) |
| Washington | 11 | OSU: 8-3. Last game: 2007 (W, 33-14) |
| SMU | 9 | OSU: 7-1-1. Last game: 1978 (T, 35-35) |
| UCLA | 8 | OSU: 4-3-1. Last game: 2001 (L, 13-6) |
| Washington State | 8 | OSU: 8-0. Last game: 2002 (W, 25-7) |
| California | 6 | OSU: 6-0. Last game: 2013 (W, 52-34) |
| Oregon | 6 | OSU: 6-0. Last game: 1987 (W, 24-14) |
| TCU | 6 | OSU: 4-1-1. Last game: 1973 (W, 37-3) |
The Pac-12 as Ohio State's favorite source for scheduling non-conference competition became a trend in the 1950s, which persisted until the 2000s.
Washington State made its first appearance on Ohio State's schedule in 1952. The Buckeyes won that encounter 35-7 and won all of the next seven games against the Cougars (1973, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1985, 1991, and 2002).
California also appeared for the first time on Ohio State's schedule as a regular season opponent. The two had met in the 1921 and 1950 Rose Bowls, splitting the series to that point. Ohio State traveled to Berkeley in 1953 and hosted the Bears in 1954. They have since had home-and-homes in 1971 and 1972 and more recently in 2012 and 2013. Ohio State won all encounters.
The Buckeyes also scheduled home-and-homes with Stanford (1955, 1956) and Washington (1957, 1958). Excluding the 1971 Rose Bowl, Ohio State would see Stanford just two more times as a home-and-home in 1981 and 1982. Washington, by contrast, would become one of Ohio State's favorite opponents. The two have met nine times since the Buckeyes swept the first home-and-home series in 1957 and 1958. Ohio State is 6-3 in those next nine encounters.
By contrast, the conference we know now as the Big 12 started to cycle off Ohio State's schedules. There was the home-and-home with Nebraska, now a Big Ten conference opponent, in 1956 and 1957. No. 6 Ohio State hosted No. 10 Colorado in 1971 in a top-ten contest in 1971, losing 20-14. The two later scheduled a home-and-home for 1985 and 1986, which the Buckeyes swept.
No. 2 Ohio State hosted, and lost to, unranked Missouri in 1976, which is one of Woody Hayes' most disappointing losses. The two later scheduled a home-and-home series for 1997 and 1998, which the Buckeyes swept.
Ohio State also had one-off games at home against Oklahoma State (1989) and Texas Tech (2002), winning both.
The aforementioned series with Oklahoma (1977, 1983, 2016, 2017) and Texas (2005, 2006) resonate more among Ohio State fans than those contests. However, the prominent nature of those contests belie how infrequently the Big 12 has appeared on Ohio State's schedules. Indeed, several familiar programs from the Big 12 (Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska) are no longer in that conference. Exclude those former members and the Oklahoma series becomes more conspicuous as Ohio State has ignored much of the current members of that conference.
A couple other trends emerge. The first is the obvious rise of the MAC on Ohio State's non-conference schedule. The 2000s saw the MAC supplant the Pac-12's five-decade run as Ohio State's favorite source for non-conference competition. This happens along with the return of Ohio opponents to Ohio State's non-conference schedule. The athletic department settled into a routine in which it would try to schedule one marquee opponent each season and fill out the remaining non-conference schedule with MAC snacks, typically in the Buckeye State.
Ohio State also had a few scheduling fads that become apparent in the data. For one, Ohio State played a Southwest Conference school 13 of 20 years spanning the 1960s and 1970s. The Buckeyes effectively treated the Southwest Conference at this time as a source for what it thought would be easy wins. Opponents in this stretch include SMU (1960, 1964, 1968, 1974, 1977, 1978), TCU (1961, 1966, 1969, 1973), Texas A&M (1963, 1970), and Baylor (1978). Ohio State was ranked for all but two encounters (1963 and 1966 v. TCU) whereas the competition was never ranked for these games. Ohio State won all but two of these games, tying TCU in 1961 and SMU in 1978.
The Buckeyes had four games against the Southwest Conference before the conference folded after the 1995 season. These include season openers against Baylor (1982), Texas Tech (1990), and Rice (1993). Houston has the distinction as the final Southwest Conference opponent played. The 1994 game against the Cougars ended in an easy 52-0 win.
Ohio State used the Big East for similar purposes in the 1990s. The Big East was a new conference by that decade but it housed several programs (e.g. Boston College, Pitt, and Syracuse) that Ohio State liked to schedule. The four-game series against Pitt from 1993-1996 stands out in this list, but Ohio State also played Boston College (1995), West Virignia (1998), and Miami (1999) in one-off encounters in the 1990s.
Two conferences are conspicuous in their absence from Ohio State's schedules. Ohio State has looked west for non-conference opponents, but almost never south to the ACC and SEC. Ohio State hosted Duke four times (1955, 1959, 1970, 1981), winning all but the first encounter in 1955. Ohio State hosted North Carolina four times (1962, 1965, 1972, and 1975), winning all but the 1965 game. There were more recent home-and-home series with NC State (2003, 2004), Miami (2010, 2011), and recently against Virginia Tech (2014, 2015).
The absence of the SEC stands out more. There have just been five games against SEC competition, excluding bowl games, all-time for Ohio State. Two of those (1933 v. Vanderbilt, 1935 v. Kentucky) were a few year's into the SEC's inaugural year of 1932. No. 9 Ohio State played No. 5 Alabama in the 1986 Kickoff Classic in the Meadowlands, losing 16-10. The LSU series in 1987 and 1988 stands out as the only home-and-home Ohio State is yet to have with an SEC team.
Oklahoma will enter Ohio Stadium on the 40-year anniversary of one of the most iconic moments in college football's history. It will also enter Ohio Stadium as somewhat of an anomaly for Ohio State's non-conference scheduling practices. The Big 12 used to be one of Ohio State's favorite sources for the non-conference schedule even if Ohio State typically looked to the Big 12 because of Missouri. However, Ohio State has historically looked further west, and rarely south, to fill out its schedule. The upcoming series against Oregon (2020, 2021) and Washington (2024, 2025) will feel more familiar to Ohio State fans even with Oklahoma, TCU, and Texas on deck for the Buckeyes.
