It is madness, scheduling madness in our favorite sport, college football. Many of you know that I like to offer my thoughts in our free football forum, and often it is pertaining to the schedules of the many teams that we play in the Big-10. Today, I believe that Oregon fans would want to learn about the Buckeye football schedule for 2026, and compare it to Notre Dame’s schedule to give us perspective.

No. 1 Ohio State’s 2026 Schedule is Playoff Ominous

Wow Jon. Such great research and information! We Oregon fans are lucky to have this kind of superb coverage, and thank you for the very informative article!

Soooo...if tOSU ends up with Three losses on the year will they still get a "benefit of the scheduling" and get into the playoffs - ala the three loss Alabama team being tapped over other (probably more deserving teams)?

HERES LOOKING (HARD) AT YOU SELECTION COMMITTEE!

Quack!

Thank you, Charles, for the kind words and another terrific editing job.

This week, Stewart Mandel of The Athletic was asked which five college games he is most looking forward to in 2026.

Two grudge matches made the list: LSU at Ole Miss and Miami at Notre Dame.

The other three games: Ohio State at Texas, Ohio State at Indiana, and Oregon at Ohio State. This sums up Ohio State's 2026 scheduling degree of difficulty in a nutshell.

In response to Microburst's excellent comment, I don't see a 3-loss Ohio State team in the playoff field unless the 3rd loss comes in the conference champ game and the PO committee values the Ohio State brand as much as 9-3 SEC runner-up Alabama last season.

Alabama joined Clemson as the two 3-loss teams invited to the PO, but 3-loss Clemson won the 2024 ACC champ game and automatically qualified.

Even with close losses to a Texas team that wins the SEC, and to Indiana and Oregon teams that finish no worse than 11-1, and meet in the conference championship game, I don't see it. There are too many teams in 2026 with far less difficult schedules than Ohio State that will finish with two or fewer losses.

This is the rub of college football scheduling, especially in today's mega-conferences. For example, last season, Wisconsin played the most difficult conference schedule. This season, the Badgers' B1G schedule is ranked the second easiest.

As tough as OBD's 2026 schedule is, it's rated the 11th most difficult in the nation by CBS Sports. On paper, 2026 is a piece of cake compared to 2027.

In the college football world, we have no clue how the PO committee values the strength of schedules.

I hope it's an SEC team, perhaps 3-loss Bama redux, and not Ohio State that is ranked No. 11 by the PO committee on December 6th, and is knocked out by No. 12-ranked and thus eliminated by automatic-qualifier Notre Dame. The Domers would move up to the 11-seed with a G6 team seeded 12th.

If it is an SEC team knocked out in the above scenario, I hope Paul Finebaum and Greg Sankey are near a hospital. 😁The good news in this situation is that college football would adopt a 24-team PO on December 7, 2026.

Beat Boise!

If tOSU Buckeyes are the last team standing, after the CFP, then they will be beyond worthy..........

JJ, thank you for all this great information. Appreciate your constant effort.

OBD's schedule is tough but nothing like tOSU. Scheduling is a tall task for each league office.

PSU sure has an easy schedule, too. If ND and PSU make the CFP then they will be playing against some battled tested teams.

Go Ducks...

Great article Jon. Good info on the two finalists for the 2024 crown.

And this is exactly why I agree with our commish: 16 with AQs, or 24. Hat would be better IMHO would be 12 with play in games on CCG weekend. No AQs, just matchups like Iowa vs Vandy, Texas vs. Michigan, BYU vs USC at all

The vast canyon between scheduling is more than annoying at this point. SEC commish Sankey had the audacity to say bad luck has been the issue for the conference the past three years.

When Texas, whom played a playoff worthy schedule is nixed out by both Oklahoma and A&M ( both whom absolutely demonstrated they did not belong in the playoffs), we have a serious problem.

Georgia also had a juggernaut schedule in 24 and made the playoffs. You are what you schedule says you are when you play the contenders. Minnetonka State is a practice/scrimmage. It's a joke that too many elite teams and contenders basically schedule 3 or 4 practice games.

So when fans and some pundits cry about a 24 team playoff field, I shake my head. Once Ole Miss dispatched Oklahoma, and Texas reminded A&M they're still a little bro, it should have been clear scheduling is muddling our ability to serious measure who is playoff worthy.

I hate the SEC ( well almost). But Texas deserved a playoff berth. More so than even Alabama. That's how messed up this playoff format is. When Iowa and Illinois pretty much silence any SEC blather about tough conference schedules is successive years, it's time to change how teams schedule.

Ohio State and Alabama are the only teams consistently putting their necks out there against title worthy opponents. That should be the starting point on determining who is playoff caliber.