COLUMBUS, Ohio – While Michigan has Michigan State and Indiana has Purdue and Notre Dame, Ohio State has no real big-time football competition within Ohio’s borders.
OSU vs. Kent State at Noon on ABC 6
Or, at least, it hasn’t for more than 90 years.
The Buckeyes have won their last 38 meetings with other colleges from the state heading into Saturday’s game against Kent State.
Not since a 7-6 setback to Oberlin in 1921 have the Buckeyes lost to an in-state opponent. For years, they didn’t even deign to play one, ignoring them from 1933 through 1991. Overall, the record is: Buckeyes: 180, the rest of Ohio: 48. Fifteen games have ended in ties.
There are two in-state opponents on this year’s schedule including the Kent State Golden Flashes, who come to Ohio Stadium today. Cincinnati visits Columbus on Sept. 20 (6:00 p.m./BTN).
Ohio State (1-1) has beaten the Flashes 51-17 in 2002 and 48-3 in 2007 in their only previous meetings.
Head coach Urban Meyer also has a perfect 2-0 record against Kent State, beating them 24-7 in 2001 and 45-14 in 2002 while he was coach of the (in-state) Bowling Green Falcons.
Ohio State has played at least one in-state opponent in 18 of the last 23 seasons and none since the season opener against Miami in 2012. It currently has plans to play only two more schools from Ohio in the future (Bowling Green in 2016 and Cincinnati in 2019), though athletic director Gene Smith says the matchups will go on.