Ohio State Football: These teams are most likely to beat OSU this year

The Ohio State football team does not lose often, but even for the Buckeyes, the possibility of defeat exists. So who on the 2021 schedule is most likely to pull off a win?

Ryan Day has run through two iterations of the Big Ten schedule and come out unscathed both times. His Buckeyes are favored to win each game on their schedule again in 2021, but that does not mean he will automatically go back to Indianapolis with another zero in the loss column. The games are played on the field as they say.

But what games pose the biggest risk to Ohio State’s quest for perfection? To give you an idea, the Buckeyes have been given at least an 81% chance to win in every game they play. If Ohio State were to play their most challenging and dangerous opponent ten times, they would be expected to win eight of them. All other opponents just go up from there with some in the high 90% expectation that the Buckeyes get the win.

With such a talent gap against their opponents, Ohio State fans and analysts can often look ahead to the Big Ten Championship or even the College Football Playoffs to try and find the matchup where the Buckeyes lose. For this exercise though, we will look at which opponents currently on Ohio State’s schedule are most likely to hand them a loss.

We start out early in the schedule on this list, which is the best time to get the Ohio State football team as they trot out a new quarterback for the first time in two seasons.