Ohio State has canceled a home-and-home series with Washington that had been scheduled for the 2024 and ’25 football seasons, the schools announced Wednesday.
In a statement, Buckeyes athletic director Gene Smith said his school initiated the cancelation and will be responsible for a $500,000 penalty under terms of the contract that must be paid by February 2025.
“As a result of the cancellation, we will add an eighth home game for the 2024 season, affording us the opportunity to have the funding to pay the penalty and guarantee for that eighth opponent,” Smith said.
The series had been agreed to in 2017. It was to see the Buckeyes visit Washington on Sept. 14, 2024, and then the Huskies travel to Ohio State on Sept. 13, 2025.
“We are very disappointed that our student-athletes, staff and Husky Nation won’t get to experience these two games with Ohio State,” Washington athletic director Jennifer Cohen said in a statement. “Everyone has had these dates circled for a number of years and we were looking forward to these opportunities to compete against the Buckeyes. We are in the process of finding new opponents for the 2024 and 2025 seasons and will provide an update as soon as we have one.”
Ohio State now will look for a nonconference opponent at home in 2024, on either Sept. 7 or Sept. 14, as well as a nonconference game in 2025, also at home, on either Sept. 6 or Sept. 13.
The Buckeyes’ 2024 schedule won’t be formally announced until October and could include a conference game against UCLA or USC when they jump from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten that fall.
