Burning Questions: How much tougher is Ohio State’s 2026 schedule than 2025?
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From now until preseason camp starts in August, Land-Grant Holy Land will be writing articles around a different theme every week. This week is all about the most important questions yet unanswered for the season. You can catch up on all of the Theme Week content and our ”Burning Questions” articles here.
Last year around this time, our Brett Ludwiczak took a look at what were the toughest games on Ohio State’s 2025 football schedule. Any team can be prone to upsets, but I thought he made some good points about the five games he singled out as the Buckeyes’ most difficult of the year: at Illinois, vs. Penn State, at Michigan, vs. Texas, and at Washington.
On paper, those seemed to be the team’s biggest challenges, although it ultimately didn’t turn out to be much trouble for Ohio State. Only Texas finished within one score of the Buckeyes, and with the Longhorns bent on revenge — having lost to Ohio State in the College Football Playoff semifinals in their most recent game prior to last year’s meeting — and with a first-year starter at quarterback for OSU, it was understandably a tight contest.
However, Ohio State had little trouble with Illinois, Penn State, Michigan, or Washington, beating those teams by an average of 19.5 points — almost three full touchdowns.
That doesn’t mean that Brett was wrong about those being the toughest games for Ohio State on the 2025 regular-season schedule, and the margin of victory confirms they were, but it’s safe to say that those games did not present enough adversity for the Buckeyes to get ready for postseason meetings with Indiana or Miami.
If the Buckeyes can again reach the Big Ten championship game and the College Football Playoff, the 2026 schedule should better prepare them for closely contested games against the nation’s best teams. As a reminder, here’s what Ohio State will face this fall:
- Sept. 5: vs. Ball State
- Sept. 12: at Texas
- Sept. 19: vs. Kent State
- Sept. 26: vs. Illinois
- Oct. 3: at Iowa
- Oct. 10: vs. Maryland
- Oct. 17: at Indiana
- Oct. 31: at USC
- Nov. 7: vs. Oregon
- Nov. 14: vs. Northwestern
- Nov. 21: at Nebraska
- Nov. 28: vs. Michigan
The first two things that jump out about the 2026 schedule are the road rematch against Texas and the addition of a road game at Indiana. Texas will present a difficult atmosphere early in the season, and although it’s nice to have a game under the Buckeyes’ belt before the matchup with the Longhorns, Texas will also get a Week 1 cupcake to fine tune things when Texas State visits Austin on Sept. 5.
That’s not an intentional knock on Texas State, which rallied from a poor first half to make the Armed Forces Bowl, in which it beat Rice, but the Bobcats were the fifth place team in the Sun Belt’s West Division in 2025, and as such they should not threaten the Longhorns.
The Buckeyes and Longhorns will likely be similarly positioned heading into the 2026 season, so this game being held in Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium is going to be a tough early season test for Matt Patricia’s rebuilt defense.
As for Indiana, losing Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza hurts, but I don’t expect the Hoosiers to go away as long as Curt Cignetti is there. He’s done an incredible job, finishing ahead of Ohio State in 2024 (despite losing 38-15 at Ohio State that year) and winning the whole damn thing in 2025.
Yes, Indiana. The Hoosiers. That actually happened, even though it feels like a fever dream. The game being in Bloomington makes it one of the most challenging games on the 2026 schedule, and it appears on paper to be more difficult than any game on the 2025 OSU schedule.
The two games against a couple of the newest Big Ten games won’t be easy either. Oregon should once again be a contender for a spot in the College Football Playoff, and that game against the Ducks comes just a week after the Buckeyes travel to USC.
The Trojans have been improving and a road game in California is unlikely to be a cakewalk.
The four games mentioned above are obvious, but there are other potential pitfalls. Illinois has to visit Columbus, but the Illini have been getting more and more competitive. The Buckeyes seem likely to win, but it could be a tight game that may come down to turnovers and/or special teams.
A week after playing the Illini, Ohio State travels to Iowa, and it’s never easy to win in Iowa City. The atmosphere and the physical nature of the Hawkeyes has tripped up talented OSU teams in the past on multiple occasions.
Speaking of difficult road games, Nebraska can present its own challenges for road teams. It’s a game Ohio State should win, but a close game is by no means out of the question.
It will be important not to overlook the improvement Northwestern made last year under David Braun in his third season in Evanston. After going 2-7 in 2024, Braun led the Wildcats to a 7-6 record last year and a 27-point victory in the GameAbove Sports Bowl in Detroit.
Beyond the obvious improvement in the team’s record and a bowl win, the Wildcats were a tough out for almost everyone. The team lost by seven against rival Illinois on the road, lost by just two points to Michigan at Wrigley Field, and fell by a touchdown at Nebraska.
Northwestern lost by more than one score just three times: in Week 0 on the road at Tulane (23-3), a 24-point loss at home to Oregon two weeks later, and a 38-17 night game loss against a ranked USC team. Ohio State should handle the Wildcats, but that doesn’t mean they’ll go quietly. Braun has made them more difficult to play against.
Finally, there’s the annual rivalry game against Michigan. It’s at home this season, but the Wolverines are under new management, with Kyle Whittingham now at the helm in Ann Arbor.
It’s difficult to know what kind of season the Wolverines will have as they adjust to Whittingham and he adjusts to the Big Ten, but what we know from his Utah days is that his teams play hard and are well coached. Add the rivalry into the mix and it’s far from a sure thing for Ohio State.
Overall, it seems evident that the 2026 season will be a bigger test with more obstacles for the Buckeyes. But if we’ve learned anything over the last several years, it’s that Ohio State seems to be better positioned for the postseason with a loss (or two) on the resume than when it goes in unbeaten and favored.
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