It’s been a gut-check couple of games to end the nonconference slate for Ohio State this men’s season, with a narrow loss to Notre Dame followed closely by a narrow victory over Denver in one of the worst offensive games you'll ever see played at the Division I level. Thankfully, those games are in the past and we now move to the Big Ten season. The next five games will determine Ohio State’s fate far more than anything they’ve seen to this point. And, frankly, anything could happen.

The rest of the Big Ten is an absolute disaster right now. Blunt, but objectively true. Maryland is still 9 top 10 team despite its worst start in years thanks to the track record of their coach. Penn State is so schizophrenic you can’t predict their results from game to game. Johns Hopkins is a shell of itself. Rutgers sports the second-best record in the conference, but has played absolutely no one. And the Wolverines are absolutely collapsing as they trundle through a season that will end after | their Big Ten tournament loss. In a fun little mini-look at the rest of the conference before conference play, let’s see what Ohio State will be up against as the Buckeyes look to repeat their title magic from 2025.

Maryland

Class of the Big Ten for years, Maryland has had a rocky start after struggling to replace so many of their starters from a year ago. The Terrapins, as it stands right now, have a boatload of work to do if they wish to make the national tournament this year. Fortunately for them, they avoided Richmond in an opener, demolishing Loyola instead on February 7. After that, it was three straight losses to ranked opponents, rattling off defeats to Syracuse, Princeton, and Notre Dame.

Currently, the Terps’ best win is over a struggling Virginia squad in triple overtime. Things get no easier as they travel to Penn State for their Big Ten opener. That game could go every conceivable direction. But I’m sweating bullets if I’m a Maryland lacrosse fan right now. If the Terps don’t go 4-1 in the regular season, they may be out of the postseason barring a magical tournament run to a conference title.

Penn State

The Nittany Lions are the most erratic team in the country right now. They’ re limited only by themselves, it seems, and that could be the toughest opponent for Penn State all year. Penn State has big wins over Princeton (13-7) and Cornell (19-7), but is hampered by losses to Lehigh, Navy, and North Carolina. Completely inexplicable. On any given day, Penn State seems capable of playing like 1990 Syracuse or current Siena. The team’s total lack of consistency is totally jarring after the run of success the past four seasons under Tambroni.

Penn State, like Maryland, has its fans sweating bullets right now. The game this week could make or break their season. A loss, and Penn State needs to go on a magic run to the tournament title. A win, and the Nittany Lions still need to go at least 3-2 with a Big Ten tournament win. The Comell win is going to age like milk, and the losses to Patriot League teams are just devastating. I love Navy, but the Mids haven’t been really good since 2004. Not from a lack of trying, either. Penn State is going to be tough in every way, because no one on earth knows which version of them will show up.

Johns Hopkins

The Jays have struggled mightily since joining the Big Ten as an affiliate program. One of the coolest brands in the sport has faded to the point of being an also-ran in a conference that has less history than people with learner’s permits. Johns Hopkins is 5-2 this season, but the best win on their resume is a nailbiter over ACC basement dweller Virginia. Talk about a sentence you’d never expect to type. If you wanted to, you could even make the argument that the Navy win is more impressive, though I think it is not entirely convincing.

Johns Hopkins was doubled up by UNC at home, and got beat by Syracuse in the Dome. North Carolina was their best chance at a marquee win, and that was a total disaster. If you’re the sick kind, like me, the Wolverines play at Homewood this weekend and have the chance to do the funniest thing if you’re a Buckeye fan with a special hatred of both programs. I don’t think it will happen (more on that later), but if it does, we all celebrate.

Rutgers

Our special school from New Jersey has decided to go full pudding and scheduled the softest out of conference schedule imaginable. And then laid eggs against both teams that had any pulse. An early 4-goal loss to Army was made worse by a 20-9 drubbing at the hands of Princeton. Rutgers has an outside shot at doing something with a miracle Big Ten run, but it would have to be similar to last year’s Ohio State march to two championships. The Scarlet Knights have nothing to hang their hat on in terms of wins, and could very well struggle to get to 2 wins in the conference.

This is Ohio State’s game for the weekend, so I'll have more to say about it tomorrow. But right now, things look dicey for the eastern edge of the conference.

Maize and Blue

Our rival is just having a terrible time of it these days, and I couldn’t be happier. The Wolverines have lost five straight games after beating three cupcakes, are only playing to be spoilers for everyone else, and haven’t even scored over 10 goals in a month. A 9-4 loss to Notre Dame was followed by last week’s 17-7 loss to Harvard. A trip to Maryland to face Johns Hopkins is the start of Big Ten play for the Wolverines, and it could very well be the beginning of the end for their season.

I cannot wait to watch Ohio State play them, I hope they lose every game between now and then, and I hope it’s a 20-9 beatdown like the early days of the program’s DI history. If the Wolverines would finally stop poaching north Ohio’s best talent, it would be a successful run and I could be completely satisfied. Our rival is bad, they deserve to be bad, and I hope it continues for years to come.

Outlook

If Ohio State could ever get healthy on offense, and figure out how to play against zone, I would feel supremely confident in predicting a repeat of both titles from last season. Unfortunately, the Buckeyes are really beat up on that side of the ball, and seem to have no direction on what to do when confronted with a half-field zone. A Big Ten regular season title is entirely plausible for this team. No one else in the conference is a juggernaut. Maryland is the weakest it has been in years. Penn State can’t figure itself out. Hopkins is bleeding. Again. Things couldn’t be set better for this team.

All that’s left is to execute. I don’t think I’ve ever been this unimpressed with the conference, but it appears to be hitting all of the blue bloods at the same time. Notre Dame is taking full advantage in the ACC right now. If Ohio State can pull its head out, then we could see some real fireworks. And, now that men’s basketball has crashed out of the tournament, you can watch the men’s lacrosse team immediately after Ohio State’s women’s basketball team demolishes Howard this Saturday.

Go Buckeyes!