The Ohio State Buckeyes' strength of schedule has been scrutinized throughout the first nine weeks of the 2025 season. It's been used as a way for SEC fans to claim OSU has a cakewalk to the College Football Playoff.
The Athletic's Cameron Teague Robinson believes those worries are overblown. Especially compared to the Buckeyes' schedule last year, which preceded the program's run through the CFP's first 12-team field.
"Ohio State is 7-0, and its opponents are a combined 29-19 this season. I don’t think that’s bad. Washington is a solid team, Minnesota just went to Nebraska and won, Texas is still in the Top 25, and Illinois’ two losses are to the two best teams in the country (and it beat USC at home)," Teague wrote.
"To put this into context, let’s look at Ohio State’s schedule last year to this point. Ohio State had played six games, and only two of those opponents had a winning record by this time: Oregon and Iowa. Ohio State played two MAC teams, Akron and Western Michigan, that were a combined 1-13. Overall, Ohio State’s opponents were 17-23, with seven of those wins coming from Oregon."
USA Today's Blake Toppmeyer has a good counterpoint: Ohio State doesn't have the strongest schedule, but unlike the Alabama Crimson Tide and Penn State Nittany Lions, they actually handled their business against bad teams.
"We can add all the tried and true caveats," Toppmeyer prefaced before saying, "Some Southerner is probably already on hold for Monday’s 'Paul Finebaum Show,' waiting to exclaim that, Pawwwllllll, Ohio State ain’t played nobody!
"Fine, but Ohio State’s also avoided flops like Penn State experienced at UCLA or Alabama endured at Florida State or the Texas debacle at Florida."
A message to SEC fans: just play the damn games and shut up about the rest. It's a cliché to complain about the refs and their strength of schedule, but certain fanbases have blamed their entire season's failures on those things.
If by season's end, your team is among the best in the country, it'll bear out in the postseason. Just as SEC schools are worried the schedule may wear their guys out, B1G schools, like Ohio State, are concerned their schedules aren't preparing them enough.
NFL divisional fans don't have these debates before the playoffs. College basketball fans don't worry about this before March Madness.
Just give it a rest and play the games, please.