Ohio State’s 2024-25 schedule is starting to shape up, as the school announced on Monday all but one of its nonconference games for the upcoming season. The team announced that it is working towards one additional nonconference neutral site game that will be announced at a later date.
The Buckeyes are set to play 10 nonconference games, which includes four matchups against notable Power Six teams. Jake Diebler and Ohio State will begin their season with a neutral site game against Texas on Nov. 4 at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena as part of the Hall of Fame Series, which also includes a game between South Carolina and Michigan.
Texas, who officially joined the SEC on July 1, is coming off a 21-13 season (9-9 in Big 12) and an appearance in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in head coach Rodney Terry’s second year leading the program. This will be just the second-ever matchup between the two programs, along with the first time in 25 years that Ohio State will open its season against a Power Six opponent.
Ohio State will then face off against Youngstown State at Value City Arena on Nov. 11 before taking on another SEC program from the Lone Star State in Texas A&M, who the Buckeyes will travel to on Nov. 15 to complete a home-and-home series started last season.
The Aggies, who defeated the then-Chris Holtmann-led Buckeyes 73-66 last November in Columbus, finished with a 21-15 record (9-9 in SEC) last season under head coach Buzz Williams — their third-straight year with at least 20 wins — and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament as a No. 9 seed.
Ohio State will then host three-straight non-Power Six programs, matching up against Evansville of the Missouri Valley on Nov. 19, Campbell of the Coastal Athletic Association on Nov. 22 and Green Bay of the Horizon League on Nov. 25. This three-game slate is headlined by the matchup against Green Bay, who on May 14 hired longtime sports media personality and radio host Doug Gotlieb to serve as head coach.
After hosting Gotlieb and Green Bay the Buckeyes will welcome Pitt to Value City Arena in what will be the second-ever matchup between the two programs, the first being a 69-49 home win for the Panthers on Dec. 18, 2022. The Panthers, led by seventh-year head coach and former Duke assistant Jeff Capel, are looking to secure their third-straight 20+-win season after going 22-11 overall and 12-8 in the ACC in 2023-24.
Ohio State is set to play three more nonconference games in December, a slate headlined by a marquee matchup against Kentucky on Dec. 21 at Madison Square Garden as part of the annual CBS Sports Classic. The Buckeyes are set to play in the CBS Sports Classic — which also features blue bloods North Carolina and UCLA each year — for the eighth time in nine years, with the program holding a 5-4 record in that span, while it is also the third time these two programs are matching up in the showcase.
This game will likely carry multiple intriguing storylines, as it will be a matchup between two first-year head coaches in Diebler and Mark Pope, who took over for John Calipari in April after the logtime Wildcats leader departed for Arkansas. It will also be a notable reunion for Ohio State sophomore center Aaron Bradshaw, who played his freshman season at Kentucky before transferring to the Buckeyes in April.
The Buckeyes’ other two nonconference games in December are at home against Valparaiso on Dec. 17 and Indiana State on Dec. 29. The Dec. 17 matchup against the Beacons will be a reunion for Diebler, who played and coached at Valparaiso late 2000s-early 2010s. Meanwhile, the Sycamores are coming off a spectacular 32-7 campaign — their second-best season in program history — that earned them an appearance in the NIT finals, but they lost head coach John Schertz and star center Robbie Avila to St. Louis in the offseason.
