Why Ohio State football canceled its 2024-25 home-and-home series with Washington

COLUMBUS, Ohio – You can cancel Ohio State football travel plans to Seattle in September 2024.

You can also prepare for another west coast trip instead.

Ohio State announced Wednesday that it will pay a $500,000 cancellation fee to withdraw from its home stretch with Washington in 2024 and ’25. Instead, it plans to pick up home games for both seasons.

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That eighth home game in 2024 will help cover the cancellation fee while guaranteeing the money OSU will pay the replacement opponent, according to athletic director Gene Smith.

“We initiated the cancellation,” Smith said in a press release. “I have the utmost respect for the University of Washington and Director of Athletics Jennifer Cohen, and this was a very difficult call to make.”

Ohio State was scheduled to play at Washington on Sept. 14, 2024, and the Huskies will return to Ohio Stadium on Sept. 13, 2025. Ohio State said it needs non-conference home games in 2024 on Sept. 7 or Sept. 14. and in 2025 on September 6 or September 13.

According to an OSU spokesperson, a few factors contributed to the series’ withdrawal.

Ohio State will play just six home games this fall. Although the budget is adjusted accordingly, teams usually play at least seven home games to wear out all the programs. Ohio State is also repaying a $48 million loan it received from the school to cover a budget shortfall due to the lack of football and other factors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Additionally, OSU and all Big Ten teams still face some unknowns as to who will be on their conference schedules starting in 2024. The original schedules had to be redrawn after the acceptance of UCLA and USC, which will begin play that fall. According to an Ohio State news release, the Big Ten schedule will be announced in October.

If OSU ended up with a road game at one of the Los Angeles-area schools in 2024, keeping Washington on the schedule would have required two West Coast trips during the regular season. And with USC locked into the 2024-25 schedule as well as known protected rivalries with Michigan and Penn State, a non-conference schedule with both Texas and Washington would start to feel very heavy.

While the settlement requires a half-million dollar payment by February 2025, it could have both competitive and financial benefits for OSU. We’ll know more when the Big Ten schedule is in hand.

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