Big Ten Releases 2015-2016 Schedules
The Big Ten released the 2015 and 2016 conference schedules earlier today and below is the release from Ohio State. The Buckeyes avoid Nebraska, Iowa, and Northwestern during the B1G regular season, although the possibility to square off with those teams in the conference championship is a possibility. Also of note, the 2015 schedule is nearly complete with just one game TBA, while the 2016 schedule has two open games to fill.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Big Ten Conference released its 2015 and 2016 football schedules today and Ohio State will open each of those Big Ten campaigns with games against the Purdue Boilermakers.
Ohio State will play at Purdue Oct. 3 to kick off the 2015 Big Ten campaign and Purdue will come to Columbus Oct. 1 for the start of the 2016 conference slate.
Ohio State’s 2015 conference schedule will also include home games with Penn State, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Indiana and road contests at Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan.
The 2016 schedule features Ohio Stadium games against Purdue, Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan and road games at Michigan State, Penn State, Wisconsin and Indiana.
Teams the Buckeyes will not meet these two seasons: Iowa, Nebraska and Northwestern. Big Ten teams Ohio State will not play during the 2013 and 2014 seasons are Michigan State, Minnesota and Nebraska.
Non-conference games for the 2015 and 2016 games are still being scheduled. Ohio State has one date still to be filled for the 2015 season and it has two openings that are yet to be scheduled for the 2016 campaign.
2015 Ohio State Schedule
Sept. 5 – North Carolina
Sept. 12 – Northern Illinois
Sept. 19 – at Virginia Tech
Sept. 26 - TBA
Oct. 3 - at Purdue
Oct. 10 - Penn State
Oct. 17 - Michigan State
Oct. 24 - open
Oct. 31 - at Minnesota
Nov. 7 - Wisconsin
Nov. 14 - at Illinois
Nov. 21 - Indiana
Nov. 28 - at Michigan
Dec. 5 - Big Ten Championship Game
2016 Ohio State Schedule
Sept. 3 – Bowling Green
Sept. 10 - TBA
Sept. 17 – at Oklahoma
Sept. 24 - TBA
Oct. 1 - Purdue
Oct. 8 - open
Oct. 15 - at Michigan State
Oct. 22 - Illinois
Oct. 29 - at Penn State
Nov. 5 - Minnesota
Nov. 12 - at Wisconsin
Nov. 19 - at Indiana
Nov. 26 - Michigan
Dec. 3 - Big Ten Championship Game
Do Not Play in 2015 and 2016…
Illinois: Michigan State, Minnesota and Nebraska
Indiana: Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota
Iowa: Indiana, Ohio State, Wisconsin
Michigan: Indiana, Penn State and Purdue
Michigan State: Illinois, Purdue and Wisconsin
Minnesota: Illinois, Indiana and Penn State
Nebraska: Illinois, Ohio State and Purdue
Northwestern: Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin
Ohio State: Iowa, Nebraska and Northwestern
Penn State: Michigan, Minnesota and Northwestern
Purdue: Michigan, Michigan State and Nebraska
Wisconsin: Iowa, Michigan State and Northwestern
Comments
I hope we get some decent opponents for the remaining '15/'16 non-con games; we already have one MAC opponent for each of those seasons (NIU & BG), no more.
"Attack the Strong, Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead!"
-Former OSU S&C Coach Lichter
I could do without FAMU in 2013. Is that a band thing?
We already have TBDBITL, so there's never any competition.
"Attack the Strong, Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead!"
-Former OSU S&C Coach Lichter
I know, but we wouldn't have scheduled a football game for that reason, would we have?
It will be interesting though, 2013 will be the first year back for the FAMU band.
"Attack the Strong, Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead!"
-Former OSU S&C Coach Lichter
Unless we fill it with a Pac 12 team, the final opponent in 2015 will definitely be a weakling because there are already 2 ACC teams on the schedule. There's probably still some hope for a good addition to the 2016 schedule but 1 of those 2 will be a joke, too.
It will be interesting to see if the ACC even exists by 2015, or will it form some abomination combo with the Big East.
"Attack the Strong, Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead!"
-Former OSU S&C Coach Lichter
Considering the big time games are usually set many years advance, it's not bad...UNC, Va Tech, and Oklahoma?? Come on, do you want all top 15 matchups in the non-conference? Granted, UNC probably won't be where they were under Butch Davis, but assuming Beamer and Stoops are still at their schools, those will be pretty big non-conference games.
Good to see that The Game is kept at the end of the season through 2016.
Taquitos.
Even better that we continue to play Indiana before tsun... nice to have an extra week to prepare without being distracted by an actual opponent.
No MSU or Nebraska in 2013 or 2014...
Braxton as a senior and Michigan at home in 2014 might be your year if you can get past VaTech at home. Guess you can all put that "Michigan didn't have to play Wisconsin or PSU in 2011" whining to rest now.
Those who stay will be CHAMPIONS!
~Bo Schembechler
Different situations. Wisconsin was the team to beat last year. MSU and Nebraska could be middle of the road teams those years. Not a good comparison. In hindsight, last year, you guys clearly skated by in terms of the schedule.
Wisconsin was 10-3, MSU 11-2, and Nebraska 9-4. Aside from Michigan and OSU, Wisconsin, PSU, MSU, and Neb will always be the non-divisional "Teams to beat." Sure the Iowas, Illinois, Purdues and Northwesterns of the world could be a challenge, but they're not really striking the fear in anyone year in and year out.
Besides, we don't know who's going to be the "team to beat" in the next 3 years. However, I accept your point about Wisconsin being a tougher win than say---Illinois. I think PSU was highly overrated, though.
Those who stay will be CHAMPIONS!
~Bo Schembechler
You lost to MSU and you didn't play the B1G champ. If you had played and lost to Wisonsin, your season looks very different having lost to the top 2 teams in the conference other than yourselves. That's also not to mention your near failures against ND which was a miracle and a down Ohio State team, both at home no less.
Of course, a win would had you played Wisconsin obviously would have helped. But again, going back to the original point, your argument about the UM schedule last season and ours to come holds no water, at this point. It could come '13 and '14, but it's not valid now. Last year, you skated by.
Michigan had a cake walk to a 11-2 season....enjoy it but see it for what it is...Ohio State had a similar scenario in 2007.
Favorable, sure. Cakewalk, hardly. Michigan was the only FBS team to play 10 bowl-eligible teams.
Those who stay will be CHAMPIONS!
~Bo Schembechler
Bowl eligible with a 6-6 record requirement does not mean all that much. How many were ranked by the end of the year?
They had 1 quality win against Nebraska.
Don't forget that we have the cakewalk this year.
True and I expect to be criticised for it by opposing fan bases.
Possibly not due to the lack of post season play. USC hasn't received much attention in the couple of years they were ineligible for post season games.
We have @Michigan St, @Wisconsin, Michigan, @Penn State, and Nebraska. I think that encompasses all of the conference contenders. How is this a cakewalk?
The only game Michigan has that is tougher than our opponents is Alabama. I'll put Cal and ND on the same level.
Notre Dame and Cal are not close. Notre Dame is far superior.
Based on...?
Not a fan of being anti-Nebraska for four straight years.
I concur! ^^
We miss Nebraska 4 years in a row? WTF? Are they, or are they not members of the B1G?
This is the reality of having a 12-team conference with 8 conference games. There will always be a team we won't play for 4 years. Right now it's Minnesota, next it's Nebraska.
"Attack the Strong, Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead!"
-Former OSU S&C Coach Lichter
If the B1G expands in the next couple of years, these schedules will be reworked, anyway. I'd say there's a pretty good chance that will happen.
Those who stay will be CHAMPIONS!
~Bo Schembechler
Just think of the scheduling night mare that will be in the BIG increases to 14-16 teams. One of the biggest questions i find myself thinking about as i try to survive a physics lecture is how will the divisions change. I think if ND comes on board it could create interesting problems. I imagine ND would like to keep playing UM and MSU, but i think with 14 teams OSU and UM will have to be in the same division to keep the last game of the year thing going and to assure they play every year. So do you put MSU, UM, and OSU in the same division? Could be a interesting situation.
MSU, UM and OSU works if UW, Nebraska and a ND are on the opposite side. The B1G would sacrifice ND v UM before they would The Game (obv).
Legends - Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Northwestern and snag Notre Dame from the state of Indiana.
Leaders - MSU, Michigan, OSU, Indiana, Purdue, Penn State and Pitt or Maryland or Virginia.
Works for me.
You think those are balanced though ? Notre Dame hasn't been good lately but when you compare them to Maryland or Virginia I dont think it's close. I remember competitive balance was the BIG's major issue when they divided the divisions.
I'm not sure there's a perfect split. Based on all-time program success, the above is far from perfect. Based on recent success or even how the programs are trending we get a little closer to 'balanced,' assuming we rank MSU and Wisconsin similarly. If you loosely consider Neb, Wisc, ND, MSU, UM, PSU and OSU as the power schools, it's a 4-3 split no matter how it shakes out. It gets really interesting if it hops to one-of-four 16-team power conferences rather than the current 12 or the 14 above.
Oh sweet, titty, f$%cking Jesus!!! Va Tech.....enter sandman....silver bullets? If it's a night game, whoa dolly that could be the road trip of a lifetime.
Too bad you can't make hotel reservations a few years in advance. That will be a fun game as VT fans love their Hokies. BTW, decent hotel rooms in the Blacksburg area are a miniscule number. I think the VT football team stays in the best hotel there the night before, or at least they used to, which further reduces the number.
How far away is Roanoke, VA and are you including hotels there as part of the Blacksburg area?
A nice trip would be to hit Charlottesville on Friday, stay overnight; tour/hike the Blue Ridge Parkway on saturday morning; roll into Blacksburg for lunch/dinner, pregame, and the game (I'm assuming a night game); lodging in Roanoke.
Roanoke isn't too far... just under an hour or so to the east. Princeton, WV could provide alternate lodging, and is roughly the same distance west... close to an hour.
My fiancee (sp?) lives down near Blacksburg. To the west in Pearisburg, there is an entrance to the Appalachian Trail. And for those who would never put Baby in the corner, Mountain Lake Hotel:
http://www.mtnlakehotel.com/
Yup, Roanoke is about 40 miles away. If you have the chance, the Hotel Roanoke is a beautiful old hotel built in 1882 by a railroad magnate, and was compeltely restored in the 90's. It is now owned by Hilton in partnership with Virginia Tech and the city or Roanoke.
Northwestern and Purdue definitely lucked out. Did the B1G just figure they wouldn't compete anyways?
2016 is looking pretty brutal already, I see no need to get another top team. Yeah, I don't want to watch the Buckeyes beat Cupcake U. But @OU, @MSU, @PSU, & @Wiscy will be a tough run to get through unscathed. I don't know what everyone expects but one likely top 10-15 team ooc each year is plenty enough.
Having to schedule games years and years in advance makes it really tough to accurately predict how good each team will really be. It was looking like 2 top10 teams squaring off against each other when the Miami series was scheduled. Washington was much better years ago as well. California and UNC will both be pretty decent opponents as well.
Dear Jim Delany,
Good job with the BTN, we underestimated you there. But please, if we add more teams and change the divisions around can we please, for the love of god, rename them?
Sincerely,
Humanity
Also, 11W commentariat: I thought I saw (awhile ago, admittedly) we'd agreed to play both Tennessee and ND out of conference at some point. Did that get shaken up after we added Nebraska? Or is it further out and still on? Or was I hallucinating that whole scenario?
When told OSU set school record for 50+ games this year, UFM said "That's good. We're gonna break that next year."
We never agreed to anything with ND; we had an agreement with Tennessee but cancelled it after the B1G/PAC-12 agreement.
"Attack the Strong, Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead!"
-Former OSU S&C Coach Lichter
Due to our agreement with the Pac won't our OOC games be filled with one of their teams?
I like to believe that my best hits border on felonious assault.
JACK TATUM