If you were looking forward to traveling to Seattle to catch Ohio State playing Washington, you’ll have to adjust your thinking. The Ohio State football program has canceled the home-and-home series with the Washington Huskies set to take place in 2024 and 2025 according to a release from the athletics department on Wednesday.
“We initiated the cancellation,” Gene Smith, senior vice president and Wolfe Foundation endowed athletic director, said in the release. “I have the utmost respect for the University of Washington and for Director of Athletics Jennifer Cohen, and this was a very difficult call to make.
Buy Buckeyes Tickets“Consistent with terms of the contract, we will be responsible for the $500,000 cancellation penalty that has to be paid by February 2025. As a result of the cancellation, we will add an eighth home game for the 2024 season, affording us the opportunity to have the funding to pay the penalty and guarantee for that eighth opponent.”
On the outside, this appears to be a decision centered around the pocketbook. OSU only has six home games scheduled for 2023, and that raises some funding concerns for a program that uses football to fund many of its other sports. Ohio State was scheduled for seven home games in 2024, and the cancellation of the road game at Washington will allow the Buckeyes additional gate and concessions revenue to make up for the fewer games in the ‘Shoe this upcoming season.
Since the Huskies were scheduled to come to Ohio Stadium in 2025, the program will still have seven home games on the docket that season. No future opponents for those two home dates have been announced, but that nonconference home game in 2024 will be either Sept. 7 or Sept. 14, and the date in 2025 will land on either Sept. 6 or Sept. 13.
🗓 UPDATE: 2024-25 football series with Washington canceled
🏟 Move will allow for an eighth home game at Ohio Stadium in 2024 @OhioStateFB #GoBucks— Ohio State Buckeyes 🌰 (@OhioStAthletics) February 15, 2023
As an added note, the 2024 schedule will be the first in which USC and UCLA will be a part of the Big Ten, so there’s a decent chance the Buckeyes will welcome one of those teams or make a trip to Southern California to play one of those two new members. Also, the expanded, 12-team College Football Playoff is set to begin in 2024, so there are a lot of things happening after this season that we’ll all be along for the ride on.
Buckle up.
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