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To simply say that the college football landscape is “changing” would be a seismic understatement. And let's just call it like it is: the singular reason behind the proliferation of conference realignment can be summed up in one word, two syllables, and five letters; money.
It makes no geographic sense for Pac-12 staples Oregon, Washington, USC, and UCLA to be moving to what has been a historically midwest conference, but in fairness, the Big Ten had already opened those floodgates in 2014 when the Maryland Terrapins and Rutgers Scarlet Knights were admitted as members, making the Big Ten a 14-team conference. The Big Ten is admittedly more of a brand than anything else, but still, it doesn't make much sense.
With conference realignment comes additional changes to be made to the schedule that teams will play, but not all schools are on-board with some of the proposed schedule alterations. Count the Ohio State Buckeyes as one of those schools. The Ohio State football program may be the powerhouse of the Big Ten, but they don't want any part of going up against Ohio high school football on Friday nights.
Re: Ohio State not wanting to host Friday night FB games, an OSU spokesperson tells me: pic.twitter.com/PoJTKkkAx6
— Matt Brown (@MattBrownEP) October 12, 2023
“They do present challenges, namely: significant all-day traffic concerns on a Friday with classes in session and our stadium on campus; and the fact we don't want to go head-to-head with the rich tradition of Ohio high school football Friday nights.” – Ohio State spokesperson, Sports Illustrated
Starting in the 2024 season, the Big Ten will feature at least nine primetime football games on Fox networks, but if they had it their way, the Ohio State football program would not be hosting one of those Friday night games. Instead, maybe the Buckeyes can make the long trip up to Seattle to face off against their new Big Ten rival in the Washington Huskies.
