Ohio State cancels home-and-home football series with Washington

Ohio State has erased a prominent non-conference home-and-home series from its upcoming football schedule.

OSU announced Wednesday that it has canceled two scheduled games with Washington. The Buckeyes were scheduled to travel to Seattle to face the Huskies in 2024 before hosting a rematch in Columbus in 2025. Now, neither matchup will take place.

As a result of the cancellation, Ohio State will pay Washington $500,000, as previously agreed upon between the two schools. This fine must be paid by February 2025.

“We started the cancellation,” Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said. “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.”

Smith said canceling the Washington game will allow Ohio State to add an eighth home game in 2024. Ohio State has six home games on its 2023 schedule.

“As a result of the cancellation, we will add an eighth home game to the 2024 season, which will allow us to secure funding to pay the penalties and guarantee eight opponents,” Smith said.

Could Ohio State Have Another West Coast Trip in 2024?

The 2024 season will be the first year that both UCLA and USC are members of the Big Ten, meaning those schools can be included in OSU’s schedule that season. If a road game at one of those schools is part of Ohio State’s 2024 schedule, the Buckeyes would have had to travel to the West Coast twice if the Washington game had been kept on the schedule.

The Big Ten’s 2024 schedule won’t be announced until October. Additionally, the College Football Playoff will expand to 12 teams in 2024.

Ohio State has non-conference home games against Southern Mississippi and Western Michigan on its 2024 schedule, but now has an opening for another non-conference home game, which could be either Sept. 7 or Sept. 14.

In 2025, Ohio State has non-conference home games with Texas (August 30) and UConn (October 18). With Washington’s return visit off the books, OSU has either Sept. 6 or Sept. 13, 2025, out of conference.

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Ohio State’s visit to Texas to complete its home-and-home is scheduled for the 2026 season. Ohio State also has upcoming series with Alabama, Georgia and Oregon.

Washington is “very disappointed” by Ohio State’s decision

A home-and-home series between Ohio State and Washington was arranged in April 2017.

Cohen, Washington’s athletic director, said the school was “very disappointed” in Ohio State’s decision.

“We are very disappointed that our student-athletes, staff and Husky Nation will not be able to experience these two games with Ohio State. “Everyone has rotated these dates for several years and we were looking forward to these opportunities to compete against the Buckeyes,” Cohen said.

Washington now only has non-conference games with Weber State and Eastern Michigan in 2024 and Colorado State and UC Davis in 2025.

“We are looking for new opponents for the 2024 and 2025 seasons and will provide an update as soon as we have one,” Cohen said.

With Ohio State not on the schedule, Washington will not have a non-conference game against a Power Five opponent until it hosts Michigan in 2028. Michigan was scheduled to visit Husky Stadium in 2020, but the game was canceled due to the COVID virus. -19 pandemic. UW then traveled to Ann Arbor in 2021 as originally scheduled.