How Cal and Stanford have held up against Ohio State football

With the new world of conference realignment and the uncertainty of the PAC-12, some schools are left without a home. Four schools, Oregon State, Washington State, Stanford, and Cal have been left basically homeless. While the PAC-12 still exists, it seems that it’s currently on life support. The most prized possessions left are Cal and Stanford, two teams the Ohio State football program hasn’t played often.

While their football programs have been struggling, they are elite programs for Olympic sports. Stanford has tons of Olympians in their history. Cal also is great at Olympic sports and has produced many Olympians in their own right. Also, these two programs have some of the best academic and research facilities in the country. They bring much more value than just a sports view.

But, we all know that football is king, and football brings the most money. With that said, the conference these two will be playing in, in the near future, is unknown. One option that did briefly open up was the Big Ten. The Big Ten was very pleased with these programs as schools, but due to how lackluster their football programs, turned away from them, and focused on Oregon and Washington. They landed both and seemed to move on from Cal and Stanford.

With the ACC turning down Stanford and Cal seemingly for good, the question remains, where will they go? Well in today’s article, we will look at how Ohio State football has done historically versus these two academic powers. Since they could still be potential Big Ten members. While it seems unlikely in this round of realignment, they could make their way to the Big Ten in the future. Their academics and Olympic sports do bring value.

With all of that being said, let’s take a look into these two schools, and how they have done against Ohio State historically in football. Similar articles have been made, about UCLA and USC, and Washington and Oregon. All of these statistics are from Winsipedia

Ohio State Football vs Stanford

These two have only played five times on the football field. It has been a very long time since these two have played as a whole. Stanford leads the all-time series, 3-2. The first time they played was in 1955, when Stanford won 6-0, but Ohio State would get their revenge the next season in Columbus, 32-20.

The last time they played one another, was in 1982 when some guy named John Elway led the Cardinal into Columbus. Wonder what ever happened to that guy? Anyway, Elway went 35-63 with two touchdowns and three interceptions.

His Cardinal went on to win 23-20, after trailing 13-0 at halftime. Ohio State had won in Palo Alto in 1981, 24-19. They played in 1971 when Stanford won 27-17 in the Rose Bowl. It has been a very long time since these two have faced off, and it is time they faced off, as it has been far too long.

Ohio State Football vs Cal

These two have a more recent history than Stanford, as they last played in 2013. Ohio State leads the all-time series, 7-1. These two first played over 100 years ago. When in 1921, Cal would land their first and only win over the Buckeyes, 28-0.

They would play in the 1950s three times, with the Buckeyes winning all three times. They would play in 1971 and 1972, with the Buckeyes winning by double digits. Then Ohio State would play the Golden Bears of Berkeley in 2012 and 2013, with the Buckeyes winning both.

If you look at photos from the 2013 game at Cal, you will see it was a heavy Buckeye crowd. It would be interesting to see these two play again, as there is a heavy Buckeye presence in the Bay Area.

Overall whichever way the Big Ten leans towards expansion or not, these programs and Ohio State do have a history with each other, and we would not mind seeing our Buckeyes return to the Bay Area for a football game!