The Ohio State Buckeyes' 2026 road to the National Championship is as hard as it could possibly get.
For Ohio State to get to where they want to go, they will have to embark on one of the hardest schedules in the history of the sport.
No matter how you slice it, to become National Champions, Ohio State will have to go through at least 10 opponents that are ranked in at least the top-20 of teams in college football.
All rankings are according to CBS Sports.
The Buckeyes got the short end of the stick for their Big Ten schedule. Within the conference, they have games on the schedule already against Texas (#2), Oregon (#3), Indiana (#6), USC (#14), Michigan (#16), and then the two outside the top 20 are Iowa (#23) and Illinois (#28).
As if the regular season schedule wasn't hard enough, once the Buckeyes get to the postseason, the opponents will somehow ramp up.
To accomplish one of their yearly goals, they will want to win the Big Ten Championship, in which their opponent will be at the very least a Top-10 program.
After that game, they will go on to the playoffs, where they will have either three or four games to get to the title.
In those games they will play some combination of the top-12 teams in the country.
So, after all of that is added up, the Buckeyes will have to play this year against 10 teams that are within the top-15 and 12 teams that are within the top-30 teams in the entire country.
I don't care if you're a fan of the Buckeyes or hate them, this schedule is no joke. In a year that the Buckeyes simply need a long Playoff run after what happened last year, they couldn't have a harder path.
There is a bigger conversation to be had about how to even out the competition within the Big Ten because Ohio State's schedule, compared to one such as Penn State's, is a night-and-day difference. It's no one's fault within each of the programs, but it is just the reality of playing in a conference with 18 teams.
All of that said, the Buckeyes have their work cut out for them. It will be as challenging a season as Ryan Day has ever had on any level, and the Buckeyes are going to have to approach every day with an incredible sense of urgency.
It isn't going to be easy, but if they get it done, it will be the greatest season any college team has ever put together.
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