Buckeyes cancel future home-and-home series with Washington
COLUMBUS — Ohio State is reshuffling two of its future schedules in a big way.
The Buckeyes series with Washington — scheduled for a road trip to Seattle on Sept. 14, 2024 and a home game against the Huskies on Sept. 13, 2025 — has been canceled. The program announced the move Wednesday afternoon.
Ohio State now has an opening on its schedule in 2024, and that final opponent is still up in the air. Whichever program the Buckeyes choose to play in 2024, it will be a home game to fill the void left by the canceled Washington game. It would give Ohio State eight home games in that season.
The Buckeyes will also need to find a replacement on the schedule in 2025.
Additionally, Ohio State will pay Washington a fee to cancel the series, as a part of the contract.
“We initiated the cancellation,” Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said in a statement. “I have the utmost respect for the University of Washington and for Director of Athletics Jennifer Cohen, and this was a very difficult call to make.
“Consistent with terms of the contract, we will be responsible for the $500,000 cancellation penalty that has to be paid by February 2025. As a result of the cancellation, we will add an eighth home game for the 2024 season, affording us the opportunity to have the funding to pay the penalty and guarantee for that eighth opponent.”
The move comes as the college football landscape continues to change and the Big Ten prepares to welcome USC and UCLA for the 2024 football season, possibly meaning a Buckeyes road trip to Los Angeles in that first season with the two new members.
Ohio State is no stranger to hosting major college football opponents in its nonconference slate. The Buckeyes hosted Oregon in 2021 and are in the middle of a home-and-home series with Notre Dame, which will send them on the road to face the Fighting Irish in September. The Buckeyes also have future series on the schedule against Texas (2025 and 2026), Alabama (2027 and 2028), Georgia (2030 and 2031), Oregon (2032 and 2033) and Boston College (2035 and 2036).
But one of those major scheduled series has now been scrapped, a casualty of a changing college football landscape. Ohio State won’t face Washington in 2024 and 2025.
There’s officially an opening to add a new Buckeyes opponent in those years.
2024 Buckeyes nonconference schedule
Aug. 31 — Southern Miss
Sept. 14 — NO SCHEDULED OPPONENT YET
Sept. 21 — Western Michigan
2025 Buckeyes nonconference schedule
Aug. 30 — Texas
Sept. 14 — NO SCHEDULED OPPONENT YET
Oct. 18 — UConn
2023 Ohio State Schedule
Sept. 2 – at Indiana
Sept. 9 – Youngstown State
Sept. 16 – Western Kentucky
Sept. 23 – at Notre Dame
Sept. 30 – Off
Oct. 7 – Maryland
Oct. 14 – at Purdue
Oct. 21 – Penn State
Oct. 28 – at Wisconsin
Nov. 4 – at Rutgers
Nov. 11 – Michigan State
Nov. 18 – Minnesota
Nov. 25 – at Michigan
Dec. 2 – Big Ten Championship Game
