Ohio State Set To “Scarlet The Shoe,” Wear All Scarlet Uniforms For CFP Game Against Tennessee

Ohio State announced on Thursday that its Dec. 21 College Football Playoff first-round game against Tennessee will be a “Scarlet Out,” where all fans who attend the game at Ohio Stadium are being encouraged to wear scarlet. 

The Buckeyes also announced on Twitter on Thursday that the team will be wearing their all-scarlet uniforms, deviating from the regular scarlet jersey and gray pants they usually wear for home games. 

The announcement comes after Ohio State’s official Twitter account teased its followers with a post on Tuesday that included just 12 scarlet circle emojis. 

This will mark just the second time Ohio State will wear all-scarlet jerseys, the first being on Oct. 30, 2021, when the Buckeyes’ defeated Penn State 33-24 in a night game at Ohio Stadium. Ohio State has had three other scarlet outs — against Iowa on Oct. 22, 2022, against Penn State on Oct. 21, 2023, and against Nebraska on Oct. 26 of this year — but it wore its traditional uniforms for each of them. 

The Buckeyes seem to be pulling out all the stops for its primetime playoff matchup with the Volunteers. In addition to the jerseys, Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork said Thursday on 97.1 The Fan that the school plans to have a drone show and pyrotechnics inside the stadium for the matchup, which he said is an effort to create more of an exciting game day atmosphere. 

“We want that to (have) an atmosphere that we can really latch on to,” Bjork said. “So maybe (we can do) more things than with our LED boards, with our video board that normally would be a sponsor, now we can make it about the atmosphere. So we’ll have pyro, we’ll have a drone show. I mean, we’re going to do as many things – having a night game, people have been clamoring for night games, so now we have it. So we want to go all in.” 

Caleb Clark, Ohio State’s associate director for marketing and live events, also posted on Monday that Buckeye fans will be excited to see what the department has “cooking up” for the upcoming game.