The Ohio State football program does a pretty good job of scheduling at least one premier non-conference game a season. Last year was one of the few seasons in which that didn't happen, but they make up for that in 2025 with Texas coming to play the Buckeyes in the Shoe.
Other Big Ten teams don't take the same approach to scheduling, which is disappointing. Texas has taken that approach now that they are in the SEC, which is nice to see. They will play Michigan and Ohio State in back-to-back seasons in regular-season games.
LSU head coach Brian Kelly wants to see this happen more often. In fact, he wants the Big Ten and SEC to have games every single season. He is proposing that the SEC move to a nine-game conference schedule and that the Big Ten and SEC schedule one non-conference game against each other.
The Ohio State football team would play the SEC every year in Brian Kelly's proposal
In Kelly's proposal, the Buckeyes would be playing an SEC team in the regular season every single year. It would certainly create more excitement for college football fans across the country if both conferences were able to commit to a scheduling model like this.
A lot of SEC schools get criticized for their weak non-conference schedules year after year. It's refreshing that Kelly is looking to improve that by adding a Big Ten team to the schedule every single season. The Ohio State Buckeyes certainly have no issue playing SEC schools.
Ohio State is scheduled to play Texas, Georgia, and Alabama in home-and-homes in the next six years. They are clearly not afraid of these premier matchups, as they know it will help them prepare for Big Ten Conference games, as well as College Football Playoff games.
It doesn't seem that the rest of the SEC feels this way. Greg Sankey seems to want the whole conference to have as easy a schedule as possible. Still, it would be cool to see this proposal pick up steam in both Big Ten and SEC circles this offseason.