{"id":446954,"date":"2026-02-03T17:51:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T17:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/446954\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T17:51:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T17:51:19","slug":"ohio-state-ad-ross-bjork-calls-for-big-ten-football-scheduling-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/446954\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio State AD Ross Bjork calls for Big Ten football scheduling changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2014 Ohio State<\/a> football\u2019s 2026 schedule is difficult.<\/p>\n

The Buckeyes will face six teams that finished the 2025 season in the AP Top 25, including reigning national champion Indiana<\/a> and College Football Playoff semifinalist Oregon.<\/p>\n

That difficulty raises a question from those in Columbus: should the Big Ten reconsider how far in advance it determines conference opponents? Ohio State athletics director Ross Bjork<\/a> believes the answer is yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is what it is,\u201d Bjork said on Buckeye Talk<\/a>. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to embrace it. That\u2019s what we do here at Ohio State. Can\u2019t be afraid, but in the future, balance, equity and things like that \u2014 if there is more parity in college football, then I think you\u2019ve got to look at recent standings and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conference opponents are currently determined four years in advance. <\/p>\n

Indiana, as an example, was 2-10 with no conference wins in 2021. Illinois was 5-7. Southern Cal, while still not in the Big Ten, was 4-8.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t set schedules four years out,\u201d Bjork said. \u201cWe should have a yearly recalibration. You\u2019re always going to protect your rivalry games, things like that. But look how the NFL does it. They get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last season, Ohio State\u2019s schedule wound up easier than expected, highlighted by Penn State falling short of preseason expectations. However, the Buckeyes dealt with logistical difficulties, including a stretch of four games to open Big Ten play in which three were on the road.<\/p>\n

Ohio State\u2019s only back-to-back road games this year \u2014 Oct. 17 at Indiana and Oct. 31 at USC \u2014 are separated by a bye week, though that raises another discussion.<\/p>\n

Most college football teams only have one bye week this season after back-to-back years of two open dates. The schedule quirk is reliant on Labor Day, with 2026 having 13 Saturdays between Labor Day weekend and Thanksgiving weekend.<\/p>\n

Bjork also hopes to see that change. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe should have a 14-week schedule every year where you have two bye weeks,\u201d Bjork said. \u201cWe only have one bye week. I don\u2019t understand what the difference is between playing on Aug. 31 one year versus Aug. 29 another year, but we can\u2019t do that because that\u2019s Week 0. That\u2019s another conversation about the calendar.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2014 Ohio State football\u2019s 2026 schedule is difficult. The Buckeyes will face six teams that finished…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[6177,399,398,396,397,210025,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-446954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-american-football","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-ncaafootball","13":"tag-ohio-state-football-2022","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}