Ohio State’s 2026 schedule is already starting to take shape on television, and the Buckeyes keep landing in the biggest windows the Big Ten can offer.
The most eye-catching one is the Oct. 17 rematch at Indiana in Bloomington. That game had been widely speculated as a Big Noon Kickoff selection, and according to The Athletic, that now appears to be the case.
FOX, per the report, will carry the Week 7 matchup instead of CBS’ 3:30 p.m. ET slot or NBC’s night game.
That choice fits the way the Big Ten’s annual TV draft works. The conference’s media partners make their picks, and FOX claimed the first three selections - essentially giving it the kind of early run a team gets in a draft with consecutive picks. That also helps explain why other marquee games get slotted where they do.
One of those is Ohio State’s Nov. 7 meeting with Oregon, which is set to air on CBS at 3:30 p.m. ET. With FOX taking its top choices first, NBC is left to protect Notre Dame-Miami in South Bend that same night.
The Buckeyes’ television picture is still not fully locked in. The rest of their Big Ten schedule will be filled out later through six-day holds and other flex scheduling possibilities.
Still, one thing is already clear: Ohio State is going to keep showing up in the Big Noon Kickoff spotlight. The program has been featured more than 20 times since the format launched, and that trend is set to continue as the Big Ten works through its seven-year media rights deal.
Whether Buckeye fans embrace that placement any more this time is another matter, especially with a rematch like Indiana on the board. For now, though, the network decisions are doing what they usually do with Ohio State - putting the Buckeyes front and center.
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If the draft holds, the Indiana game would land in the noon window on FOX with Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt on the call, while Oregon would get a 3:30 p.m. FOX slot with Brad Nessler and Charles Davis. For Ohio State, the network placement matters almost as much as the opponent in a season built around marquee dates, and these early TV hints only sharpen the intrigue around two games that should carry plenty of weight in the Big Ten race. [Read more 🡒]