Ohio State will open the 2025-26 men’s basketball season with a Nov. 3 home date against IU Indy, the first of six straight home games for the Buckeyes.
Ohio State has unveiled its full nonconference schedule for the regular season, including the five high-major games the program had previously announced. It features 10 games played between Nov. 3 and a Dec. 23 home game with Grambling State and one neutral-site game against Virginia to be played Feb. 14 in Nashville.
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There is a gap between a Nov. 28 game at Pitt and a Dec. 13 game against West Virginia in Cleveland at Rocket Arena. OSU is expected to play against Big Ten opponents during that time as the conference typically schedules one or two league contests in early December to break up its 20-game schedule.
While the Big Ten has announced which teams will play each other how many times in its unbalanced scheduling model, the league’s full conference schedule is expected to be released in early September. Assuming that the Buckeyes play two early-December games, the road game against Pitt will be the start of a run of five straight games against high-major opponents.
That stretch will include the games against Pitt and West Virginia as well as a Dec. 20 game against North Carolina in Atlanta at State Farm Arena as part of the annual CBS Sports Classic.
Ohio State’s Jake Diebler is entering his second full season as the Buckeyes’ head coach.
The Nov. 16 home game with Notre Dame is the highlight of a home schedule that also includes Purdue Fort Wayne, Appalachian State, Western Michigan and Mount St. Mary’s in November. Otherwise, Ohio State’s four other high-major games will be road or neutral court games.
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The game against Pitt concludes a home-and-home series while the one against Notre Dame will start a new one.
Ohio State is No. 19 in the preseason projections at BartTorvik.com. Its six home “buy” games will be against teams with an average preseason ranking of 277.7, while the five high-major opponents have an average ranking of 50.4.
The Buckeyes are expected to play one public exhibition game and one closed scrimmage, although details are to be announced. Tip times and broadcast and streaming information will be announced at a later date.
Here’s Ohio State’s full nonconference schedule:
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November
3 – IU Indy
7 – Purdue Fort Wayne
11 – Appalachian State
16 – Notre Dame
20 – Western Michigan
25 – Mount St. Mary’s
28 – at Pitt
December
13 – vs. West Virginia (Cleveland)
20 – vs. North Carolina (Atlanta, CBS Sports Classic)
23 – Grambling State
February
14 – vs. Virginia (Nashville)
Ohio State men’s basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at ajardy@dispatch.com, on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State’s full nonconference schedule features North Carolina, Virginia
