The Buckeyes’ 2017 non-conference schedule is now over, and while the Oklahoma game will be the one everyone remembers, it was the other two matchups that were truly historic.
Before this season, Ohio State had never faced either Army or UNLV. Now that they have, it brings the list of FBS teams who have never played Ohio State to 41, with two more scheduled in the next 24 months. The vast majority are “Group of Five” schools, but there are some surprisingly big names included as well. The list is broken down below by conference. The Big Ten (obviously) and Pac-12 are not listed because the Bucks have played at least one game against every member of those conferences.
ACC (2)
Georgia Tech, Wake Forest
Big 12 (2)
Iowa State, Kansas
SEC (2)
Mississippi State, Ole Miss
Independents (1)
UMass
American (6)
East Carolina, Memphis, Temple, Tulane, UConn, USF
The Buckeyes are scheduled to play Tulane in 2018. Tulsa was a first-time opponent in 2016.
Conference USA (11)
Charlotte, FAU, FIU, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Old Dominion, Southern Miss, UTEP, UTSA, Western Kentucky
The Buckeyes are scheduled to play FAU in 2019.
Mid-American (2)
Ball State, Central Michigan
Mountain West (5)
Boise State, Colorado State, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah State
Hawaii was a first-time opponent in 2015.
Sun Belt (10)
Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Idaho, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, South Alabama, Texas State
Idaho will technically leave this list in 2018 when they drop to FCS.
A few additional notes uncovered while researching this:
- Ohio State is unbeaten and untied against 65 schools all-time. They are 15-0 against Ohio Wesleyan, 9-0 vs. Oregon, and 8-0 vs. Washington State.
- The non-Big Ten team the Buckeyes have faced the most is Pittsburgh. OSU holds a 19-5-1 record in 25 games against the Panthers.
- OSU has only faced Kentucky twice, and hasn’t played them since 1935. They’ve also played border-state teams Louisville (1991, 1992) and West Virginia (1987, 1998) only twice. The Bucks are 2-0 against all three.
- There are nine teams who have played the Buckeyes at least once and never lost to OSU. Florida State and Clemson lead the way at 3-0. South Carolina, Florida, and… Cornell… are the only others to play the Bucks more than once without suffering a loss or tie.
- The Buckeyes have lost more games against USC (13) than they have against long-time Big Ten members Indiana (9) or Minnesota (7).
- The Trojans have also played seven neutral site games against Ohio State, the most of any program. Alabama is second with four.