When Indiana football will host Ohio State next season

For the third consecutive season, the 2025 college football National Championship went to a Big Ten school, with Indiana clinching its first-ever title. The Hoosiers followed Michigan in 2023 and Ohio State in 2024 to keep the trend alive.

As the two most recent College Football Playoff champions, Indiana and Ohio State will face each other in 2026. The teams just met in the 2025 Big Ten title game and will meet again on Oct. 17 in Bloomington, On3 Sports’ Brett McMurphy reported.

McMurphy added that the rest of the Big Ten schedule will be released on Jan. 27. Most teams have already confirmed their 2026 non-conference schedules.

The matchup will mark the second consecutive year that the two most recent national champions will face off in the regular season. Michigan and Ohio State’s 2025 meeting marked the same occasion, with the Buckeyes coming out on top and snapping a four-game losing streak to their arch-rivals.

The game will also be the third-ever meeting between Curt Cignetti and Ryan Day. Indiana and Ohio State have played in each of Cignetti’s first two years in Bloomington, splitting the pair of meetings. The Buckeyes took the first matchup between the coaches at the end of the 2024 regular season before Cignetti got revenge in the 2025 Big Ten Championship Game.

While the programs and coaches will be the same, the teams will be almost entirely different in 2026. Julian Sayin, Jeremiah Smith and Bo Jackson return for Ohio State, who will lose Carnell Tate and almost its entire defense.

Indiana will have to replace even more production with most of its roster heading for the 2026 NFL Draft. Fernando Mendoza, Elijah Sarratt, Omar Cooper Jr. and Roman Hemby each played their final college football snaps in the 2026 National Championship Game.

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