Ohio State coach Ryan Day saw his team’s perfect record vanish Saturday in a 13-10 loss to the Indiana Hoosiers in the Big Ten championship game. While the Buckeyes fell to 12-1, they still hold a Week 1 victory over the Texas Longhorns, having won 14-7 at the Horseshoe against the preseason No. 1 team.
That early-season loss proved costly for coach Steve Sarkisian’s Longhorns, who missed out on a place in the College Football Playoff after finishing with a 9-3 record. Had Texas scheduled an easier opponent to open the year and finished 10-2, they likely would have been on the bubble for a postseason spot.
Why Does Urban Meyer Want Ryan Day To Drop the Texas Game?
Day’s Buckeyes will travel to Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium to play Sarkisian’s Longhorns on Sept. 12, 2026. This high-profile matchup could once again jeopardize the College Football Playoff chances for whoever loses.
Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer weighed in on this risk during Saturday’s segment of the “Dan Dakich Unfiltered” show. He advised Day to cancel the scheduled trip to Austin next season.
“If I’m right now, Ryan Day, I don’t play that game next year at Texas,” Meyer said. “I’m the head coach, you just gave me an extension. I’m gonna go to the AD and say, ‘I’m not playing that game. You figure it out. You’re the AD.’”
Day succeeded Meyer as the Ohio State coach following Meyer’s retirement in 2018. During his six-year tenure, Meyer led the Buckeyes to one national championship and three Big Ten titles.
How Will Steve Sarkisian Approach Future Schedules?
During a news conference last week, Sarkisian confirmed he intends to play the game against Ohio State next year. However, he questioned the wisdom of scheduling elite programs for the Longhorns’ non-conference slate in future seasons.
“There are layers to this,” Sarkisian said. “First of all, we’re gonna honor Ohio State and Michigan. For the next two years, we know what our nonconference schedule is going to look like. That’s the right thing to do; we made the commitment to play them, now we’ll honor that commitment for them to come play us here.”
Sarkisian indicated that changes could come after those commitments are fulfilled.
“I think anything beyond [the next two seasons] is up for discussion,” Sarkisian said. “[Texas Athletic Director Chris Del Conte] and I have already had that discussion. We need to take a good, hard look at what our nonconference schedule looks like beyond the next two years.”
The debate over scheduling top teams in non-conference play has intensified after the Longhorns’ narrow loss to the defending champions ultimately kept them out of the postseason.
