Ohio State keeps acting like a program that wants the big stage, and Georgia may be about to send a very different message.
The Bulldogs are currently scheduled to meet the Buckeyes in 2030 and 2031 in a home-and-home series, but that arrangement suddenly looks shakier after Georgia canceled its future series with Clemson. That move made Ohio State’s upcoming date with Georgia feel a little less certain, especially since it’s now the fourth home-and-home the Bulldogs have backed out of.
That trend fits the larger shift around college football scheduling. With the SEC moving to nine conference games, more teams seem wary of loading up on demanding non-conference opponents. The fear is obvious: one bad loss can complicate a College Football Playoff push, so some programs would rather avoid the risk and fill the calendar with an easier opponent.
Ohio State has taken the opposite approach. The Buckeyes have continued to line up high-profile non-conference games, including recent matchups with Notre Dame, Texas, and Oregon before Oregon moved to the Big Ten.
The Week 2 trip against Texas didn’t go their way, but it hasn’t changed the Buckeyes’ appetite for those games. Alabama is on the schedule next season, and Georgia is supposed to follow down the road.
The Alabama series is too close to be the kind of thing that gets scrapped now. Georgia’s future games, though, could still be vulnerable. If the Bulldogs do pull out, it would fit a pattern that has become increasingly familiar across the SEC, where some programs seem perfectly happy to trade marquee games for softer ones.
Texas, at least, deserves credit for keeping its matchups with Ohio State intact over the last two years. The Longhorns could have tried to get out of them, but they stayed with the schedule. That matters to fans, and it matters to programs like Ohio State that still believe these games belong on the calendar.
Ryan Day has already made his position clear. He thinks these kinds of matchups are good for college football, and he said as much before the Week 2 game against Texas.
There may also be a bigger-picture incentive on the horizon. If the CFP expands to 24 teams, big non-conference games could carry even more value because resumes would be spread across a larger playoff field.
For now, though, the immediate concern is whether Georgia keeps its word on the Ohio State series. The two schools have only played twice.
The most recent meeting came in the 2022 College Football Playoff semifinal, when Noah Ruggles missed a potentially game-winning field goal and the Buckeyes fell 42-41. Their other meeting came in the 1992 Citrus Bowl, a 21-14 Georgia win.
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