COLUMBUS — Ohio State will play the same Big Ten teams during the 2021 football season as they would have if the COVID-19 pandemic hadn’t forced major changes to the 2020 schedule.
The Buckeyes will just play them in a different order.
The Big Ten shortened its 2020 season to eight games because of the pandemic and six games were played at the same location as the previous year.
The changes to the 2021 schedule avoid having the same home team three years in a row for those games.
Ohio State’s revised features the same nine, the same dates for home and away games and the same locations, but the lineup of game dates has been shuffled, Department of Athletics sports information director Jerry Emig said.
Ohio State still opens on the road at Minnesota on Thursday, Sept. 2, has its same off week of Oct. 16 and closes the season against Michigan in Ann Arbor on Nov. 27.
The changes involving the sequencing of the other seven games, Emig said.
Revised 2021 OSU Football Schedule (former schedule)
Sept. 2 – at Minnesota
Sept. 11 – Oregon
Sept. 18 – Tulsa
Sept. 25 – Akron
Oct. 2 – at Rutgers (at Nebraska)
Oct. 9 – Maryland (Purdue)
Oct. 16 – Off (Off)
Oct. 23 – at Indiana (at Rutgers)
Oct. 30 – Penn State (Michigan State)
Nov. 6 – at Nebraska (at Indiana)
Nov. 13 – Purdue (Maryland)
Nov. 20 – Michigan State (Penn State)
Nov. 27 – at Michigan
Dec. 4 – Big Ten Championship Game
Six Big Ten football games will be played at different sites than originally planned on the revised 2021 conference schedule.
Two rivalry games were moved back to their traditional spots at the end of the regular season.
Iowa plays at Nebraska on Nov. 26 and Wisconsin visits Minnesota on Nov. 27.