The Ohio State Buckeyes don't back down from scheduling the biggest and best non-conference opponents during the early regular season, unlike other schools from the Big Ten that have recently won a title.
The News-Gazette's Bob Asmussen, who writes for the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Fighting Illini country, if you will, gave the Buckeyes love for stepping up to the plate to face elite SEC competition most years.
"(Ohio State-Texas) will be the most hyped non-conference game in the country. The winner should jump a spot or two in the AP poll if it isn't there already," Asmussen wrote.
"Are you thinking the Buckeyes might take it a bit easier after 2026 and skip the Texas-sized challenges? That isn't how it works at Ohio State. The school hosts Alabama in 2027 and will go to Tuscaloosa in 2028. After taking a break in 2029, Ohio State is scheduled to play at Georgia in 2030. That is how national powers are supposed to schedule."
Presumably, that wasn't a shot at Illinois, though the Fighting Illini haven't played a who's who of non-conference opponents in recent years: the Western Illinois Leathernecks, the Duke Blue Devils, the Western Michigan Broncos, the Central Michigan Chippewas, the Kansas Jayhawks, Eastern Illinois Panthers, FAU Owls, and Toledo Rockets since 2023.
Of course, not only are teams like the Indiana Hoosiers, who beat the Old Dominion Monarchs, who, granted, were a good Group of 5 team last year, the Kennesaw State Owls, and the Indiana State Sycamores in non-conference teams, scheduling easy early-season matchups, but SEC schools are considering backing down from these types of games now that the "It Just Means More" conference is doing nine conference games.
Alabama is considering cancelling Ohio State game
Paul Finebaum, typically a friendly media figure for Alabama, given his Birmingham roots, took down Kalen DeBoer in an explanation for why the Crimson Tide is probably going to cancel the Ohio State series planned for 2027 and 2028.
“I sincerely doubt the Alabama game is going to happen based on what I’ve heard from Alabama’s AD,” Finebaum said on 97.1 The Fan. “He’s got a shaky situation there anyway with a coach that is in trouble. Georgia might do it because they’re a little more in-tune and aligned, but I really don’t think we’re going to go too far and see those games. I know what Ross Bjork has said, and I know what [Chris] Del Conte has said and other ADs have said, but the reality is that the ninth SEC game is going to be very costly for a lot of programs.”
If/when that happens, the Buckeyes will look even better for never backing down, but teams backing down from them.