Ohio State as an independent? The idea gains traction ahead of the Buckeyes' USC trip

Ohio State has been in the Big Ten since 1913. Now a prominent national columnist is asking whether the Buckeyes need a conference at all. No one at the school has floated the idea, and nothing has been reported about any move. As Heavy points out, the case comes from a column by The Athletic's Stewart Mandel, not from anyone in Columbus. Still, the argument is getting attention because of where the sport is going.

The timing has to do with the playoff. Yahoo Sports reports that the College Football Playoff will grow to 24 teams starting with the 2027-28 season. Conference championship games will go away, and Power 4 champions will still get automatic bids, with each league deciding how its champion is chosen. With no title game and most top teams playing for seeding in an outside tournament, Mandel asks why a program like Ohio State keeps splitting Big Ten television money 18 ways. He called the league "mostly just a TV bundle," according to Heavy's account of the column.

Mandel admits that only a few programs could make independence work. He notes that Notre Dame already struggles to find big-name opponents now that conferences play nine league games. His solution is a group of independents: Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, USC, Texas, Alabama and Georgia would join Notre Dame and schedule home-and-home series with each other, then fill the rest with ACC, Big 12 and smaller opponents. His sample Ohio State schedule includes Texas, Georgia, Penn State and Michigan, and he argues the Buckeyes would earn more selling those games to networks than they get from their share of the Big Ten deal.

For now this is a thought experiment. It does show how much the playoff format is changing the value of conference membership, and the Big Ten's biggest brand is the obvious example.

The game in front of them

The league chart still matters this fall, and Ohio State is near the top of it. The Buckeyes are 6-1. Their only loss was 24-23 at Texas in September, and they have won five in a row since then. That run includes a 31-14 win at No. 14 Iowa and a 19-15 grind at No. 5 Indiana last time out, their lowest point total of the year. The offense put up 45 against Maryland and 42 against Illinois before scoring was harder to come by in Bloomington.

Next is a trip to USC on Saturday night on NBC. It happens to match the cross-country league travel Mandel uses in his argument.

On this site's board, Ohio State is favored at -228 on the moneyline at Novig and by 6.5 points on the spread, priced at -111 there. USC is +217 at Novig, and the best price anywhere is +220 at theScore Bet, so the venues are close on the outright. They differ more on the spread: theScore Bet offers USC at +7.5 for -130, while Novig has +6.5 at +108. The total is 51.5 at Novig, with BetRivers at 51. Sportsbook hold on the moneyline ranges from 3.3% to 5.9% across the 11 venues.