We now know what day and against who Ohio State's 2020 football season will begin.
Ohio State's new eight-game regular season schedule will commence on Oct. 24, when the Buckeyes will face Nebraska at Ohio Stadium. The game will be televised on Fox.
It will be the third time Ohio State has faced Nebraska in a season opener, as the Buckeyes previously hosted the Cornhuskers in their first game of the year in both 1955 and 1956. It will also feature a matchup between the two teams who were most vocal in pushing for the Big Ten to play football this fall, which Nebraska made light of on Saturday morning with a tweet featuring a clip from the movie “StepBrothers.”
.@OhioStateFB pic.twitter.com/YP6UlR0rNe
— Nebraska Football (@HuskerFBNation) September 19, 2020
The Buckeyes will play one of their marquee games of the season in week two, on Oct. 31, when they will travel to State College to play Penn State in a game that could very well decide who wins the Big Ten East.
That will begin a run of four straight divisional games, as Ohio State will host Rutgers in its third game of the year on Nov. 7, travel to Maryland for its fourth game of the season on Nov. 14 and host Indiana in their fifth game of the year on Nov. 21.
Ohio State will play its second cross-divisional game of the season on Nov. 28 – the Thanksgiving weekend where it typically plays Michigan, but the sixth week of the new schedule – when it travels to Illinois.
The Michigan game will be played in the final week of the eight-game season, on Dec. 12, after the Buckeyes play their final road game of the regular season at Michigan State on Dec. 5.
| Date | Opponent |
|---|---|
| SATURDAY, OCT. 24 | NEBRASKA |
| SATURDAY, OCT. 31 | at PENN STATE |
| SATURDAY, NOV. 7 | RUTGERS |
| SATURDAY, NOV. 14 | at MARYLAND |
| SATURDAY, NOV. 21 | INDIANA |
| SATURDAY, NOV. 28 | at ILLINOIS |
| SATURDAY, DEC. 5 | at MICHIGAN STATE |
| SATURDAY, DEC. 12 | MICHIGAN |
The full Big Ten schedule grid:
The Big Ten Conference announced today the schedule for the 2020 football season, including an eight-game Conference-only schedule starting the weekend of October 24 plus a ninth game for all 14 teams during a newly created Big Ten Champions Week the weekend of December 19. pic.twitter.com/jaDXMhh2C8
— Big Ten Conference (@bigten) September 19, 2020
While all games are scheduled to be played on Saturdays as of now, it's still possible that games could be moved to Fridays; non-Saturday games will be announced at a later date, per Ohio State.
All Big Ten teams will also play a ninth game as part of the conference's “Champions Week” this year. On Dec. 19, the Big Ten East and West division champions will meet in the Big Ten Championship Game while the rest of the conference's teams will also play cross-divisional games based on where they finish in their division's standings (No. 2 in East vs. No. 2 in West, #3 East vs. #3 West, etc.)
The 2020 season will be the first Ohio State season to start in October since 1939, and the Oct. 24 start date is the latest start date for an OSU season since 1891, when the Buckeyes played just four games, all in November or December.
