Ohio State football's road opener at Michigan State on Oct. 8 to kick off at 4 p.m.

Ohio State’s road opener at Michigan State on Oct. 8 will kick off at 4 p.m. and be televised by ABC, the school announced Monday.

The first five games on the Buckeyes’ schedule have been at Ohio Stadium, making this their first trip outside Columbus this season.

The matchup once loomed as one of the more formidable tests as the Spartans were on the cusp of the top-10 weeks ago, but have since fallen outside the top-25 rankings after losses in consecutive weeks to Minnesota and Washington.

The Buckeyes last visited East Lansing in late 2020 during the COVID-19-mired season. A week after their game at Illinois was canceled due to an outbreak of coronavirus cases, they responded with a 52-12 rout of Michigan State.

Nearly two dozen of Ohio State’s players were unavailable for the game, and coach Ryan Day also did not travel while in quarantine after testing positive for the virus.

The Buckeyes have not lost at Michigan State since 1999.

Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Contact him at jkaufman@dispatch.com or on Twitter @joeyrkaufman

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State football kickoff time at Michigan State announced