Why is Ohio State canceling football series with UW?
SEATTLE — It's the first question so many of you probably had upon hearing of Ohio State's decision to cancel its series of game with the Washington Huskies football team.
A series that would have brought the Buckeyes to Seattle in 2024, the marquee schedule on the home slate for UW that season. The Huskies would have made the trip to Columbus in 2025.
Ohio State's statement doesn't flat-out say it, but you have to read between the lines.
This one line from the story on the matter on the athletics website of OSU says it all: "Ohio State’s 2024 schedule won’t be formally announced until October of this year, and for the first time it could include a Big Ten Conference game against either the UCLA Bruins or the USC Trojans, tradition-rich programs that will be in their inaugural season as members of the Big Ten."
It means, of course, Ohio State is expecting or at least preparing for USC and UCLA to join the Big Ten by that season. Thus, the Buckeyes don't want to have to travel to the West Coast for two games that year.
Annoyed yet, Huskies fans?
When Ohio State Athletics Director Gene Smith says, “I have the utmost respect for the University of Washington," in his statement, it's actually kind of laughable.
In fact, the cancellation is a complete and utter lack of respect.
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Not only is it a message of sorts that Ohio State can't be bothered to trek to this side of the country twice in a year, but it leaves the Huskies in a pretty huge predicament.
On the field, they'll likely be fine; Kalen DeBoer seemingly has this program on an astronomical trajectory. It's the idea of filling the sudden hole in the schedule that will be difficult to overcome.
A game 19 months from now may seem like a long time, but in the world of college football, it really isn't.
Most programs, at least in the Power 5, have their schedules filled years in advance.
Heck, even UW's 2028 slate of games is full. Now, though, there's one game to fill in 2024 and 2025. The 2024 home opener is an urgent need on Montlake now.
While it's a certainty that UW will find someone, it's almost certainly not going to be a school and program at the caliber of Ohio State, or probably not anybody else in the Power 5 leagues.
Now, not only is UW Athletic Director Jen Cohen racing to find someone, but trying to find a home game that will draw something resembling the revenue that a visit from Ohio State would have.
And it's all because of a pretentious type of move that, beyond the perception it sends, adds major logistical problems as well. This move was made as a slightly more convenient thing for Ohio State while ignoring a contract that was signed in 2017.
A broken six years later and only a year and a half before it was to be fulfilled with no regard for how it will impact Washington.
Welcome to the current state of college athletics.