No. 2 Ohio State will take a cross-country trip to No. 3 Oregon State on Saturday for a top-five showdown that is the highlight of the Week 7 college football schedule.
This is the biggest game yet for the new 18-team Big Ten conference. That’s also the challenge Ohio State coach Ryan Day is grappling with with the challenges of cross-country travel brought on by realignment.
“You are in control of your own destiny,” Day said at his weekly news conference Tuesday. “Because you’re playing the best teams in the league on our schedule. That part is great. There’s a lot at stake this weekend. That’s exactly what we want.”
The challenges are different for the Buckeyes now, with a lot at stake. In Week 7, they are not alone. No. 4 Penn State goes to USC. There are two other cross country games on the Week 7 schedule, with Washington heading to Iowa and Minnesota heading to UCLA.
The Big Ten’s version of Manifest Destiny has pushed the conference to the West Coast, and with it, on-field challenges are prevalent early in the season.
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2024 Big Ten vs. former Pac-12 teams
Oregon State, University of Southern California, University of California, Los Angeles, and Washington State will join the Big Ten in 2024. A significant portion of Big Ten Media Day was devoted to analyzing the impact of increased travel from the West Coast to the Midwest and vice versa. Here’s a look at these schools’ home and road records for the new competition.
The 34-13 win between Oregon State and UCLA on Sept. 28 doesn’t count here, since both teams are old rivals in the Pac-12.
Team Home Road Washington 2-00-1 UCLA0-10-1 Oregon 1-00-0USC1-00-2
The home team is 8-1 in these cross country games.
UCLA lost to Penn State 27-11 in Week 6. The Bruins also lost to Indiana 42-13 in the Rose Bowl on September 14th. This is so far the only game a former Pac-12 school has lost at home to an incumbent Big Ten school.
USC has lost twice in the Big Ten, against Michigan and Minnesota, both by allowing touchdowns in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. Washington split games against Rutgers and Michigan.
Oregon State defeated Michigan State 31-10 in Week 6, but has yet to play a traditional Big Ten school on the road.
I haven’t included any other games. Purdue played Oregon State, still a member of the Pac-12, on September 21, and the Beavers won 38-21.
This is not a new trend among conferences during the regular season.
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Big Ten vs. former Pac-12 record since 2000
Let’s take a look at the old Pac-12 and Big Ten records in the regular season from 2000 to 2023.
According to MCubed.net, the Big Ten had a 10-31 record on the road against the Pac-12 in its 24 regular season games.
The Pac-12 had a better record when visiting Big Ten schools from 2000 to 2023, posting a 19-27 record. Perhaps this is a result of the geography of the former Pac-12, which spanned approximately 1,360 miles from Tucson, Ariz. to Pullman, Wash., which is about the same as the 1,996 miles from Piscataway, N.J. to Lincoln, Nb. . , but Rutgers and Nebraska were not in the same division in the previous Big Ten setting.
Penn State coach James Franklin addressed one of the challenges the Nittany Lions face with travel during Monday’s press conference.
“When this started, a big part of the discussion with the Big Ten was that not only are we one of the northeastern schools, but the length of the runway, the size of the planes, the They said it was based on the weight, the fuel on the plane, and you can’t leave here unless you stop to refuel,” Franklin said.
The team is scheduled to depart from Harrisburg, Pa., on Thursday for Saturday’s game against USC, adding an additional 90 minutes of driving on the front and back ends of the five-hour flight, Franklin said.
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Will Ohio State and Penn State buck this trend?
Given these trends, it was no surprise that Michigan lost 27-17 to Washington. During regular season trips to the West Coast during this period, the Wolverines were 0-4 with losses at UCLA (2000), Washington (2001), Oregon State (2003), and Utah State (2015). Ta.
Penn State hasn’t played a regular-season road game against a former Pac-12 school since back-to-back losses to USC in 1990-1991. The Nittany Lions have the advantage on the trip back to the Coliseum, but it’s still a challenge given the trends.
“We try to approach it that way and give it the right amount of respect,” Franklin said. “We try to be as informed as we can and be as aware as possible of what the environment is going to be like, what the locker room is going to be like, what the stadium is going to be like, all of that.”So when we go there, our staff… You can try to recreate those things during the week so you don’t get surprised. ”
Meanwhile, Ohio State is 3-2 in true road games on the West Coast since 2001. The wins were Arizona (2000), Washington (2007) and California (2013). The losses were to UCLA (2001) and USC (2009). The challenge at Autzen Stadium was new, one the Buckeyes hadn’t experienced since 1967, which coincidentally they won 30-0.
Will that trip be a big hurdle for the Buckeyes?
“I don’t think it’s that difficult,” Day said Tuesday. “I think it’s a four-and-a-half hour flight. That’s a few more hours than Nebraska. We’re going to stay on schedule. I think we’ve got a good plan.”
