College Football Needs More Games Like Ohio State vs. Texas

Ohio State mascot, Brutus, and University of Texas mascot, Hook 'Em, interact during a filming of the Joel Klatt Show on Ohio State's campus on Aug. 28, 2025. The Buckeyes' kick off the 2025 season against the Longhorns at Ohio Stadium on Aug. 30. Week 1 provided a satisfying introduction to the 2026 college football season, but Week 2 serves up the true main-event of the campaign’s first month.“It’s great for college football,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said on Tuesday of his No. 1-ranked Buckeyes visiting No. 5 Texas on Saturday. “This is going to be an unbelievable atmosphere down here against a great opponent. Everybody in the country will be watching.”And everybody tuning into the prime-time kickoff from Austin presumably agrees with Day that this matchup is indeed great for the sport, regardless if one is wearing scarlet and gray or burnt orange.The Week 1 slate was not without thrilling contests, capped on Monday with SMU escaping Florida State with a 27-24 win. The Mustangs’ victory was the second marquee matchup in as many nights coming down to a field goal, as Ole Miss outlasted Louisville in a Sunday night barnburner, 41-38.Second-ranked Oregon’s 34-27 win over Boise State on Saturday likewise provided an exciting return to action. What’s more, it embodied a positive byproduct of the College Football Playoff as it exists now.Before the expansion to a 12-team tournament, the loss — which came down to the final possession — would have eliminated Boise State from title contention. Given the Broncos’ status coming in unranked, winning in such nail-biting fashion may well have ended Oregon’s aspirations for a championship back in the Bowl Championship Series days.The opposite side of that perspective, however, suggests that lower stakes for high-profile non-conference contests devalues their meaning. In the BCS days, Ohio State-Texas might well have been a de facto playoff game in an era when only two teams could play for a national championship at season’s end.One can be understandably pessimistic over college football trading in a postseason atmosphere every Saturday over the span of three months for a system that has the 2025 version of Alabama competing for a title.But in the same vein, Ohio State traveling to Texas offers hope of the sport encouraging more of these kind of early-season matchups.Consider that in 1998 — the first season of the BCS — the campaign kicked off with eight Top 25 matchups in Weeks 0 and 1. The 2026 slate opened with just the Ole Miss-Louisville game.This year’s slate is more in line with the trend that began early into the BCS years. The system tacitly discouraged scheduling up in the non-conference almost immediately, with a trip to Miami denying UCLA a title-game spot in 1998 and the Hurricanes coming up on the other end of a similar scenario in 2000 when it lost a September heartbreaker at Washington.By the first season of the four-team Playoff in 2014, the season kicked off with just one Top 25 game. Here in the 12-team era, the dearth of such contests in the non-conference portion of most teams’ schedules has become more of a tradition than heavyweight showdowns like Ohio State and Texas.Should Saturday’s losing side endure the rest of their schedule that follows, however, and lands a spot in the Playoff, perhaps the expanded bracket can be the conduit that creates more such matchups.That’s a win for the players who seek high-profile competition, as Day alluded to on Tuesday.“This is why you come to Ohio State,” he said.. “This is why you come to Texas.”And games like Ohio State-Texas are why we follow college football.