Ohio State Buckeyes Might Become College Football Independent

The Ohio State Buckeyes first played college football as a member of the Big Ten Conference in the year 1913 — so long ago that it was then known as the Western Conference — an ironic name given the expanse of the league now.

The current direction of college football, though, may soon send the Buckeyes toward being a college football independent — a land pretty much just occupied by Notre Dame these days.

To be clear, nothing has yet been affirmed or even reported. But speculation from one of the top reporters in college football, The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel, has laid out the case for Ohio State to become independent.

In a world where the College Football Playoff welcomes 24 teams, it’s a path that could make sense for Ohio State.

Why Ohio State Would Go Independent

Independence would come in large part because conference affiliations just don’t mean quite as much anymore. Ohio State is playing at the University of Southern California on Saturday.

And when the CFP expands, conference championship games will go away. The conference schedule will mean less than it ever has.

“The Big Ten at this point is mostly just a TV bundle,” Mandel writes. “Six schools have nothing in common with the other 12, traditional rivalries are being replaced by manufactured ones, and the travel for non-football sports is ridiculous. If there’s no conference championship game, and those marquee programs are mostly just playing for CFP seeding in an external tournament, why continue to share revenue with 14-15 other schools that don’t drive nearly the same value you do? But perhaps independence is a more realistic option.”

The question becomes more about whether the Buckeyes could actually make it work.

“Only a small handful of programs could pull it off, and it wouldn’t necessarily be easy,” Mandel writes. “Notre Dame is already running into a problem finding enough marquee opponents to fill a schedule now that they’re all playing nine conference games.”

Mandel happens to think Ohio State is part of a group that could do it.

“But suppose Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, USC, Texas, Alabama and Georgia all joined Notre Dame as independents,” Mandel writes. “They would lock in four home-and-homes between them. Could each of them then do four home-and-homes (32 total) per cycle with ACC and Big 12 opponents? Probably. That’s four home games. Then do two more with leftover B1G/SEC schools and two Group of 6/FCS buy games, and you’ve got yourself seven home games a year.”

Ohio State Potential Independent Schedule

Mandel laid out what an independent slate could look like for Ohio State.

He drew up a listing of games that goes like this: Bowling Green, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kansas State, Virginia, Texas, Iowa State, Georgia, Pitt, Penn State, Youngstown State and Michigan.

“I guarantee you Ohio State would make more money selling those games to the networks than its 1/18th share of the Big Ten’s contract,” Mandel writes.

And if it’s about the money, which it certainly seems to be, this seems plausible.

This article was originally published on HEAVY

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