Ohio State Buckeyes: The Game has a new date

The 117th meeting between Ohio State and Michigan is set for Oct. 24 in Columbus.

Each team has two scheduled off weeks, and the last week of November is open for everyone in case of the need to reschedule games.

The Big Ten Championship game in Indianapolis is still set for Dec. 5 at this point.

Ohio State and Michigan have played every season since 1918, the first time the contest was the last of the season for the Buckeyes.

In 1935, The Game was moved to the last game of the season with one exception for the Buckeyes.

In 1942, Ohio State finished a national championship season with a 41-12 win over Iowa Preflight, a school commissioned to train Navy cadets for combat in World War II.

In a teleconference Tuesday, Ohio State players expressed a willingness to play their arch-rival anytime.

“I don’t really care when we play ‘The Team Up North.’ I just want to play them,” said quarterback Justin Fields, who added a desire to “just beat the brakes off of them.”

“I’m right there with Justin,” added offensive lineman and fellow captain Wyatt Davis. “It really doesn’t matter to me when we play them. Obviously the tradition of The Game is very important to us, but it doesn’t matter to me if it’s the first game on the schedule, we’re going to beat the brakes off of them.”

While pride has sometimes come before the fall in a rivalry that started in 1890, the Buckeyes have good reason to be confident.

They have won a program-record eight in a row against the Wolverines and 17 of the last 19 games.

The Wolverines still lead the all-time series 58-52-6 (counting a victory Ohio State vacated as a result of NCAA violations in 2010), but that is the closest the series has been since 1905.

“Of course, with the tradition of The Game, I would love for it to be the last game of the season,” said Josh Myers, a Miamisburg grad who is the returning starter at center for the Buckeyes. “I’d also love to have a normal college football schedule. I’d love to play Oregon. So there are a lot of things that are different about this year. I think just letting that go for now and accepting the situation as is and being ready to play any day.”

Ohio State was originally set to open the season Sept. 5 at home against Bowling Green then travel to Oregon, but those were wiped out when the Big Ten opted to go with a schedule of only conference games in all fall sports.

Updated 2020 Ohio State football schedule

Sept. 3 (Thursday) at Illinois

Sept. 12 Rutgers

Sept. 19 at Purdue

Sept. 26 Indiana

Oct. 3 (open)

Oct. 10 Nebraska

Oct. 17 at Michigan State

Oct. 24 Michigan

Oct. 31 at Maryland

Nov. 7 at Penn State

Nov. 14 (open)

Nov. 28 Iowa