6 key takeaways from Ohio State's full Big Ten schedule

adam jardy, the columbus dispatch

Fri, Sep 9, 2022, 6:04 AM·6 min read

Less than two months until the official start of the season, Ohio State now knows exactly what lies ahead.

Thursday afternoon, the Big Ten officially announced the league’s full slate of conference games for the 2022-23 season. With 14 teams playing 20 conference games, Big Ten teams play seven opponents home and away, three others at home only and three others on the road only. It’s an imperfect science that can unintentionally create unbalanced schedules across the league depending on which teams draw multiple matchups with others, but it’s a reality as conferences continue to expand.

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The Buckeyes had announced their non-conference schedule, which includes a trip to the Maui Invitational, a road game against Duke and a neutral-court one against North Carolina, weeks ago. Tip times and broadcast details for Big Ten games will be announced sometime next week, but here are some immediate takeaways from Ohio State’s schedule reveal.

1. Where are the home weekend games?

If you just can’t make it for a weeknight tip because work or childcare force you to get up too early the next morning, you’re going to have a tough time seeing the Buckeyes at Value City Arena this season. Ohio State doesn’t host a weekend Big Ten game until Jan. 21 when Iowa comes to down for a Saturday game. It’s one of only three weekend Big Ten games this season for the Buckeyes, and by the time the Hawkeyes arrive the Buckeyes will have played seven conference games.

Ohio State's other two weekend games are on Sundays. One of them, arguably the biggest conference draw of the season (Michigan State), comes to Value City Arena on Super Bowl Sunday. For point of reference, Ohio State’s Big Ten home opener last season was a Saturday tip against Wisconsin and six of the 10 Big Ten games were on Saturday or Sunday (although COVID-19 did have a significant impact on the second half of the season).

The non-conference doesn’t help much, either. Ohio State will host St. Francis on Saturday, Dec. 3, but otherwise the other five non-conference games will be played on weekdays.

Either way, it’s not a great recipe for ticket sales.

2. Twenty-six days of stress

With so much turnover among Big Ten rosters this season, it’s difficult to have an accurate read on which teams will ultimately challenge for a spot near the top of the Big Ten standings. Even with that caveat in mind, Ohio State has an eight-game stretch from late January through mid-February that reads like a veritable Murderers’ Row of opponents.

Starting with a Jan. 24 game at Illinois, the Buckeyes will play seven of eight games against teams that figure to be NCAA Tournament participants. That run ends with a Feb. 19 game at Purdue and also features road dates with Indiana (Jan. 28), Michigan (Feb. 5), Iowa (Feb. 16) and Purdue (Feb. 19) as well as the home date against Michigan State. In his offseason Top 25 And 1 rankings, CBSSports’ Gary Parrish has the Hoosiers ranked No. 17, the Wolverines No. 19 and Purdue No. 22.

The lone game in that stretch not against a team expected to challenge for an NCAA Tournament berth is a Feb. 9 home date with Northwestern.

3. Will the season finale mean something?

Late-season injuries have played a big role in Ohio State faltering down the stretch during each of the last two seasons. In 2020-21, the Buckeyes entered the Big Ten tournament on a four-game losing streak. Last season, Joey Brunk played the game of his life to lead Ohio State past Michigan State and otherwise prevent it from again taking a four-game losing streak into the postseason.

It won’t be easy, but Ohio State will have the benefit of home rims for a three-game stretch that leads into a senior day showdown at Michigan State for a third time in the last eight years. After the aforementioned nine-game stretch, the Buckeyes will host Penn State on Feb. 23, Illinois on Feb. 26 and Maryland on March 1 for a Wednesday night senior day.

Depending on how the 29-day stretch leading into the game against the Nittany Lions goes, this could be a critical juncture for the Buckeyes to gather themselves before going into East Lansing in search of their first win there in a decade. And given the animosity that built up between the fanbases last season, that Sunday date with Illinois has the potential for some serious juice.

4. There’s a path to a strong start

Although the level of competition figures to pick up near the midseason mark, Ohio State does open with a favorable stretch of games. The Buckeyes play just one December game when they host Rutgers on Dec. 8, then kick off 2023 with a New Year’s Day game at Northwestern.

By the time Ohio State finishes a Jan. 21 home game with Iowa, it will have evenly split its first eight games between home and away with five of them against teams currently projected to miss the NCAA Tournament according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.

5. Ohio State’s single- and double-plays don’t help a team of newcomers

This isn’t exactly news, given that the Big Ten released its list of how many times teams would play each other nearly three months ago, it merits repeating that Ohio State’s randomly assigned single- and double-plays could have broken better for the Buckeyes.

Lunardi projects eight Big Ten teams to make the NCAA Tournament: Rutgers, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Purdue, Indiana, Michigan State and Ohio State. The Buckeyes have three teams they only play at home, and none of them are on that list: Minnesota, Penn State and Wisconsin. Ohio State’s three road-only opponents are Nebraska, Indiana and Michigan.

Not only does Ohio State not get to host its two primary rivals (and ticket-sellers) in the Hoosiers and Wolverines, but five of its seven double-play opponents are projected to make the NCAA Tournament by Lunardi: Illinois, Purdue, Rutgers, Iowa and Michigan State.

6. Opportunities for signature wins abound

The flip side of it all is that Ohio State will have plenty of opportunities to bolster its resume with games against quality competition. If the Buckeyes take a couple of losses in the non-conference (and with games at Duke, against San Diego State to open the Maui Invitational and against North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic, they almost certainly will), this schedule will give them opportunities to compensate and pick up important wins against NCAA Tournament-caliber foes.

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy