According to documents viewed by The Dispatch, Ohio State is spending a total of $4.05 million on its non-league football games this year.
The first of the Buckeyes’ three non-conference games is Saturday against Akron, followed by games against Western Michigan on Sept. 7 and Marshall on Sept. 21. All of those games will be played at Ohio Stadium.
Most of the money will go to the Broncos ($1.85 million) and the Thundering Herd ($1.6 million), who will each receive seven-figure sums for their trips to Columbus next month.
According to the agreement signed by the two schools in 2021, Ohio State would have paid Western Michigan $1.8 million, but that was changed last year, resulting in a $500,000 increase.
The total guaranteed amount is the most the Buckeyes have spent on a series of non-conference games since 2021.
It was three years ago when they paid a total of $6.4 million to three out-of-conference opponents, including $3.5 million to Oregon, which was previously a member of the Pac-12 before joining the Big Ten this summer.
The large payment to the Ducks was a negotiated sum after a meeting had to be canceled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Buckeyes were supposed to visit Autzen Stadium to start a home and away series.
Ohio State paid its non-conference opponents $2.6 million last year and $3.6 million in 2022.
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Ohio State will pay Akron $600,000 for Saturday’s season opener. The Zips replaced Southern Mississippi as the Buckeyes’ opening nonconference opponent late last year. The payout to Akron is about a third of what Ohio State would have owed the Golden Eagles had the game been played in 2020 as originally scheduled.
The trade resulted in a slight cost savings for OSU. Instead of paying Southern Miss $1.9 million, the company will now have to raise $1.55 million, which includes the payout to Akron and $950,000 in damages to the Golden Eagles for the cancellation, according to an amendment finalized last November.
An Ohio State spokesperson said last week that the change in opponents was due to the school’s desire to play an in-state opponent this season. With the exception of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, in which non-conference games were canceled, the Buckeyes have hosted a different Ohio school every year since 2019.
USA TODAY sports project reporter Steve Berkowitz contributed to this report.
Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State University football for The Columbus Dispatch. Follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @joeyrkaufman or send him an email to [email protected].
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