The Ohio State football team will play against Texas in a historic season opener. It's the first time that the top two teams in the Coaches Poll will face off in Week 1. The Buckeyes ended up coming in at third in the AP Poll, but the game will still showcase two of the top three teams in the country.
Texas is searching for revenge after the Ohio State Buckeyes knocked them out of the College Football Playoff. The Cotton Bowl victory propelled the Buckeyes to the national championship game, which they would end up winning against Notre Dame.
Despite the fact that Texas is ranked ahead of Ohio State in both polls, Vegas doesn't have much faith that they can take down the Buckeyes in the Shoe on August 31st. In fact, they are setting history, and not the kind of history that the Longhorns want to set prior to this epic clash.
The Ohio State football team is favored over Texas despite difference in poll rankings
Even though the Buckeyes are below the Longhorns in both rankings, they have opened up as a 2.5-point favorite in the game, according to FanDuel. According to ESPN, it's the first time since at least 1978 that the top-ranked team enters Week 1 as an underdog.
Ohio State is clearly one of the best teams in the country, even if pollsters don't believe they are the best team. The game is at home, which is why Vegas gives them the upper hand in this showdown. It will be the first game that a lot of players on both teams have started, however.
Winning this game would give the Buckeyes a buffer to lose two games down the stretch of the season and still make the College Football Playoff. Of course, that's not their goal. They want to win all of their games, especially the final one against TTUN, in order to end the four-game losing streak.
The Buckeyes will have a new starting quarterback, an entirely new defensive line, and new coordinators on both sides of the ball. That's a lot to overcome, but Ryan Day is confident that his team is going to win this game, just like Vegas believes they will.
This game will be broadcast on FOX at noon ET, as part of FOX's Big Noon Kickoff. It will also be the site of College Gameday, which will be Lee Corso's final show of his storied career.