Ohio State’s non-conference schedule this year consists of Army, Oklahoma, and UNLV. Next year’s non-conference schedule consists of Oregon State, TCU and Tulane. This would make three of the past four seasons in which no Ohio team appeared as a non-conference foe for Ohio State, a break from what fans think is a non-conference scheduling tradition for the Buckeyes. However, our review of Ohio State’s football schedules since 1913 (the year in which it joined the Western Conference, which later became the Big Ten) suggests more interesting patterns than recent history suggests. The extent to which Ohio teams might be disappearing from Ohio State’s schedules conforms to the rationale that led Ohio State to ignore in-state teams altogether from 1935 to 1991. Ohio State’s move from the Ohio Athletic Conference to the Western Conference constitutes its graduation to major program status in which it now shared a conference with heavyweights of the time…
Continue Reading: Ohio Teams Are Gradually Disappearing from Ohio State's Non-Conference Schedules
