Ohio State vs Kansas Tip-Off time announced for the CBS Sports Classic

The Ohio State Basketball team will once again participate in the CBS Sports Classic in the 2026-27 College Basketball season. It was announced back in January that in the Buckeyes 12th time playing in the event, they will meet the Kansas Jayhawks in their first year playing in the event. On Thursday, the tip-off time for the game was announced.

The Buckeyes will square off with the Jayhawks at Noon ET on December 19th from Madison Square Garden. It's the first game of the doubleheader that's put on by CBS each year. North Carolina and Kentucky will play in the following game at 2:30 PM ET.

This meeting will be the 12th meeting ever between Ohio State and Kansas with the Jayhawks leading the all-time series 8-3. In Kansas's dominance in the series, they have gone 3-0 in games played in Lawrence and 3-1 in games played at Ohio State. The Jayhawks have also won six straight games in the series over the Scarlet and Gray, going back to the 1997 season.

The last time the two programs played each other was in December of 2012, when Kansas beat the Buckeyes 74-66 in Columbus. Also in March of 2012 was the most memorable of the recent meetings between the Ohio State basketball team and Kansas, where the two squads met at the Final Four in New Orleans. This game was not as memorable for Buckeye fans as the Scarlet and Gray got out to a big 13-point advantage in the first half. Then Kansas came roaring back and came from behind to beat Ohio State 64-62 to advance to the National Championship Game, where they would ultimately fall to Kentucky.

Ohio State's last win in the series came at a neutral site in Hawaii in the 1986-87 season. The Buckeyes are long overdue for a win against Kansas, and now that they're added to the rotation in the CBS Sports Classic, the Buckeyes will have many opportunities to take down the Jayhawks as long as the event continues.

This game against Kansas will give Ohio State another resume-boosting opportunity to their schedule. Also on the non-conference slate, the Buckeyes will open on November 2nd in Salt Lake City, taking on BYU. They will begin a home-and-home series with UConn where they will travel to Storrs on November 13th, and they will play the return game of a home-and-home series they started with Notre Dame last season. The date of that game in South Bend has not been announced yet.

The CBS Sports Classic has always given Ohio State highly entertaining games. Last season, they fell to North Carolina 71-70 in a game that went right down to the wire. In 2024, the Scarlet and Gray picked up their most recent victory in the event by knocking off 4th-ranked Kentucky 85-65 in a big win.

The Ohio State Basketball team holds a 6-5 record in the event, which is just behind the North Carolina Tar Heels, who have an 8-4 record. The Buckeyes will have a chance to build on that record in their first meeting against Kansas in the last 14 years.

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