Announced games by fbschedules.com and Ohio.

Key:
Buy - One team pays another team for a single game.
(H/H) - Home and Home - each team will host each other in a home game apart of one contract.
FCS - Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) - Lower Level Football (D1 schools that don't play on FBS level)

2026

9/05 - at Nebraska (buy)- This will also be the first meeting between the two schools on the gridiron.

9/12 - vs Jacksonville State - (Buy) - Second all‑time meeting between the two programs.

9/19 - at South Alabama (H/H) - Return Game from 2024.

9/26 - vs Stonehill (FCS) - The Bobcats will pay the Skyhawks a $400,000 guarantee for playing the game,


* Cincinnati cancels return trip to Athens, This is from H/H which started in 2019 and covid moved 2020 meeting to 2026. The Bearcats will likely pay a $500,000 cancellation fee.

2027
9/04 - Saint Francis U. (FCS) The Red Flash will also receive a $350,000 guarantee for the contest. Ohio and Saint Francis U. have never met on the gridiron in their history.
9/11 - Marshall (H/H)
9/18 - @ West Virginia (H/H) (Game 2 of 3)
9/25- @ Texas State (Return Game from 2016/ 2020 Covid game was rescheduled)

2028
9/9 - @ Marshall (H/H)
9/16 vs James Madison Dukes
TBD (est. Wk 3) - @ Illinois (Moved from 2025 to allow for OSU game in 2025)

2029
9/1 - @ West Virginia (Buy) - This is a H/H,+ buy contract and the thrid game was a buy game.
9/8 - Marshall (H/H)

2035
9/15 @ James Madison Dukes -

Thank you for posting, this is some great information!

Some thoughts:

1. Our schedule this year is sneaky INSANELY hard. Syracuse, Louisiana and Northwestern are three programs you don't traditionally expect in the Top 25 most years who could ALL realistically be in the Top 25 this year. If we run the table in OOC this year we will be Top 25. Also, I hear from McKinney that Duquesne is loaded this year... Dambrodt sucks...

2. All of those buy games we are being paid to play in; it's great people are paying us to beat them :upside down smiley face:

3. Penn State agreed to play us again?

4. We are playing Iowa State... What conference are they in at that point?

5. Only people on this message board will understand how excited I am to travel to Nebraska in 2026.

6. Marshall away in 2025 and home in 2027? So the rivalry skips a year now? Interesting. The rationale being that'll make it more tempting for everyone? I'd really like to just join a conference with Marshall again...

They have more cojones than Syracuse b-ball. In 1998 we became the first -- and I think only -- school to knock the Orange off in the first round of their own tourney (the old Carrier Classic) and they haven't scheduled us since.

We should be slight favorites against Syracuse. Louisiana will be the best team we face all year. N'Western should be decent but I believe they lost a lot of guys.

That Iowa State H/H is looking better and better every week. That program is making moves.

I agree about Louisiana.

Same here - laid a whipping on us in 2019 - only team to do so in a year marked with close losses.

Dino's gotta be on the hot seat up there. A 24-36 record overall; 13-29 in the ACC and just one season above water out of five. They were 10-3, 6-2 his third year so in the other four they're 14-33, 7-27. If we beat them he might be out before their bus loads up at Peden.

Agree with that, Louisiana did kill us last time, but I think we might be better matched this time, for the following reasons:

In 2019, we lost the turnover battle 5-1 and lost by 20 points. We can probably do a better job of taking care of the ball this time in its a minor miracle we lost by only 20 with that TO ratio.

Louisiana was 10-1 in 2020 but things werent all roses. The Ragin Cajuns won 4 or 5 games by 4 points or less in 2020. There were several games they scored 7 or less points in the first half.

In 2019, Louisiana had two NFL offensive linemen that killed us in the power running game-those guys are gone.

What it will come down to is if Ohio can stop the run and make the Cajuns beat Ohio with the pass. The Louisiana QB can scramble but the WR group is very average.

We have a contract pending with WVU in that time frame as well.

Louisiana is a preseason Top 25 in the Coach’s poll https://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaaf/polls/coaches-poll /

There's a real chance they can beat Texas in Week 1. I wouldn't be totally shocked if it happened.

Northwestern is 27th in the coaches poll, so if they open the season 3-0 (definitely possible, if not expected as I don't think MSU is supposed to be particularly good) they would almost surely be Top 25 for our meeting.

Their schedule is
Home-Michigan State
Home-Indiana State
At-Duke
Home-OHIO

With all this talk about conference alliances and realignment, it got me thinking about our past non-conference schedules and the Power 5 teams we've played.

Ohio vs Power 5 Teams (since 2005, based on current conference alignment)

ACC 1-5
Big Ten 2-8
Big 12 2-0
PAC-12 N/A
SEC 0-4

Power 5 Wins
Pitt (2005)
Illinois (2006)
Penn State (2012)
Kansas (2016)
Kansas (2017)