Yesterday, North Carolina announced its future home-and-home series with Ohio State was forced into cancellation because of the Big Ten’s move to a nine-game conference schedule.
OSU intimated a short time later that an announcement of replacements to fill those scheduling holes was imminent... and those intimations were proven correct.
In a press release, the Buckeyes announced a pair of one-off games to replace the UNC series: Sept. 23, 2017, vs. UNLV and Sept. 1, 2018, vs. Oregon State. The latter game will serve as the season opener for both teams.
Also, both of those games will be at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.
In 2017, Ohio State will play five of its Big Ten games on the road, just four at home. In the UNC home-and-home agreement, OSU was scheduled to travel to Chapel Hill to play the Tar Heels, which would’ve meant just six home games that season for the Buckeyes. By dropping UNC -- Ohio State stated in its release that the two sides “agreed to cancel their two-game series” -- and adding UNLV in 2017, OSU managed to push that total up to a Power Five athletic director’s (preferred) bare-minimum of seven home dates.
Notwithstanding high-paying neutral-site games, of course.
(Photo credit: Ohio State athletics)