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The Big Ten announced the full conference football schedule for 2026 on Tuesday night.
Here it is:
Usually this would have been published long before this, but the timing allows us to have a good idea of what teams will look like this fall — at least to the extent that is possible now with so much player movement.
Based on the name brands and who was good last year, this looks like a toughie, but not something the Buckeyes can’t manage if they are truly good enough to play for it all.
The long and the short of it is Ohio State is set to face a majority of the Big Ten teams that were good last season and also goes to Texas, which will be a preseason top five team again.
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The good news is Ohio State’s 2026 football schedule lays out with good balance rather than being loaded with big games at the beginning or the end (which seems to have happened often over the years).
They play Texas second, Indiana seventh, Oregon ninth and Michigan last.
There are seven home games, including five against Big Ten teams.
The trickiest two-game pairing appears to be USC and Oregon back to back to end October and begin November.
The Buckeyes go to Los Angeles then come home to face the Ducks, who are like Ohio State and Indiana are a trendy top five pick for next season.
They face Indiana the week before the Trojans, but then they have their one open week in the schedule. (Of note: Teams had two open weeks the last two seasons because of the calendar having an extra Saturday between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. That won’t be the case this season, though I wouldn’t be surprised if they move the start of the season up in the future for this and many other reasons.)
After facing Oregon, Ohio State gets two of the three weakest Big Ten teams on the slate — Northwestern (at home) and Nebraska (on the road).
Then of course comes a visit from new coach Kyle Whittingham’s Michigan to close out the regular season.
This has the potential to be about seven ranked teams with an eighth coming in the Big Ten Championship Game, but these things tend to not end up looking the same in real life as on paper at this time of year.
The first half of the season has the titanic tussle in Texas sandwiched by Ball State and Kent State, who were among the worst teams in the country last season.
Then comes Illinois, which was on the outer realm of rankness most of this season and will probably be decent again this fall.
Next is a trip to Iowa.
The Hawkeyes were not far from making the playoff last season as they went 9-4 with close losses to Indiana, Oregon and USC.
They’ll have a new quarterback and new receiving corps, but it’s Iowa so does that really matter?
Well, they also lost a lot on the offensive and defensive lines as well as elsewhere in the defense but were active in the transfer portal…
The second half of the season starts with a trip to Indiana, then they have a week off before going to USC.
How good will the Trojans be? They return quarterback Jayden Maiava and their top two running backs but had to rebuild the receiver corps in the portal. They need to improve their offensive line and defense, but what else is new?
We’ll break it down more in depth as the offseason wears on, but those are some early impressions I got.
This is manageable but certainly not easy.
Could they lose three games?
Yes.
If they are to three of the top teams on the schedule, will they still make the playoff with hopes of doing any damage?
Also probably, but I’m sure Ryan Day would rather not tempt fate.