Members of the OSU football team huddle around coach Urban Meyer during the first day of fall practice Aug. 4 at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center in Columbus.
Credit: Tim Moody / Lantern sports editor
Just a day after news broke that Ohio State had cancelled its football home-and-home series with North Carolina, the Buckeyes schedule is full once again.
Originally scheduled to play UNC in Chapel Hill, N.C., in 2017 before hosting the Tar Heels in 2018, OSU is now set to play the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Sept. 23, 2017 and Oregon State Sept. 1, 2018 to open the 2018 season, OSU announced in a Thursday press release. Both games are scheduled to be played in Columbus.
The UNC cancellation stemmed from the Big Ten’s decision to go to a nine-game conference schedule starting in 2016.
According to the release, the years of a home-and-home series between the Buckeyes and Boston College have also been changed. Previously set to face-off in 2020 and 2021, the two teams are now schedules to play in 2023 and 2024, with the first matchup taking place at Ohio Stadium and the latter in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
The release also pointed out that, with the addition of Oregon State, the first three games of OSU’s 2018 season will feature three teams from the recently autonomous “Big Five” conferences.
The trio of “Big Five” match-ups will begin with the aforementioned opener against Oregon State of the Big 12. The Buckeyes will then face Rutgers of the Big Ten Conference on Sept. 8, before heading to Texas to take on Texas Christian University of the Big 12 Conference.
In the next nine years, including this season, OSU has home-and-home series scheduled with Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, TCU, Oregon, Texas and Boston College.
The Buckeyes’ 2014 season is scheduled to kick off Aug. 30 at noon against Navy at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.
