Good morning, Eleven Warriors readers. Hope everyone had a happy and safe New Year's Eve, even with what took place as the clock struck midnight and the calendar turned to 2023 on the east coast.
With Ohio State's 2022 football season coming to a brutal end Saturday night in its Peach Bowl loss to Georgia in the College Football Playoff semifinal, it's time to look ahead to the future of the Buckeyes on the gridiron. More specifically, their future non-Big Ten opponents.
This Week's Question: Which non-Big Ten Power Five team would you add to Ohio State's future schedule as a home-and-home series?
It's certainly worth noting that there are already a number of possible would-be answers that are already on the Buckeyes' future schedule. Then again, some of these could potentially get changed and/or removed from the schedule:
- 2023: at Notre Dame
- 2024: at Washington
- 2025: vs. Texas, vs. Washington
- 2026: at Texas
- 2027: vs. Alabama
- 2028: at Alabama
- 2029: N/A
- 2030: at Georgia
- 2031: vs. Georgia
- 2032: at Oregon
- 2033: vs. Oregon
- 2034: N/A
- 2035: vs. Boston College
- 2036: at Boston College
Whether that changes your answer or not is completely up to you, but those are the non-Big Ten Power Five opponents currently on Ohio State's schedule for the next 14 years.
My answer: The Tennessee Volunteers. My best friend's family (who is basically family to me) are huge Vols fans, as his dad played basketball at Tennessee. Whether it would be the trash-talking prior to the home-and-home series or the fact that we all could go to both games, it would make for a really fun matchup, especially considering the Vols are back to being relevant again in college football. I've never been to a game in Knoxville and it would be awesome to watch my Buckeyes play on Rocky Top.
Ohio State and Tennessee had a two-game series scheduled in 2018 (in Columbus) and 2019 (in Knoxville), but the Buckeyes canceled the home-and-home matchup when the Big Ten expanded, unfortunately.
