The Great Lakes Conference of the National Club Football Association has announced a new scheduling format for the 2026 season that will feature a four-team playoff to determine a conference champion.
In a conference-wide meeting, the Great Lakes Conference members agreed to a four-team intra-conference playoff that will feature the No. 1 team in the East Division hosting the No. 2 team in the West Division and the No. 1 team in the West hosting the No. 2 team in the East in a semifinal round. The semifinal winners will then play in the conference championship game to be hosted by the higher-ranked team in the NCFA Power Rankings.
Using 2025 as an example, had the new intra-conference playoff system been in place, Ohio State (No. 1 East) would have hosted Oakland (No. 2 West) and Michigan State (No. 1 West) would have hosted Toledo (No. 2 East) in the semifinals.
The 2026 conference championship game will be held either Nov. 21 or Nov. 22, depending on the location and host school, with the conference semifinals held the weekend prior.
As for the regular season conference schedule, the Buckeyes will travel to Michigan State to open the season on Sept. 20 as part of the Great Lakes Conference crossover agreement.
The crossover agreement, which went into place for the 2025 season, annually pits two teams from the rival Great Lakes divisions against each other based on the previous year’s standings. Since the Buckeyes and Spartans both won their respective divisions a year ago, they will play again in 2026. However, Ohio State will travel to Michigan State this season as the crossover agreement features rotating host divisions. In 2025, the East hosted and swept the crossover games as Ohio State defeated Michigan State 45-7, Wright State knocked off Oakland, 34-30 and Toledo pummeled UW-Milwaukee, 49-6.
In 2026, the other Great Lakes crossover games will feature Toledo at Oakland, Wright State at Loyola (Chicago) and Pitt at UW-Milwaukee.
In divisional play, the Buckeyes are scheduled to travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Panthers on Sept. 27. The Panthers are set to return to the NCFA after a three-year hiatus and last played against Ohio State in 2019, a 41-0 win for the Buckeyes. The two teams were scheduled to play again in 2023, but the Panthers instead shut down their season due to lack of funds and available players, resulting in a forfeit win for Ohio State.
Ohio State’s lone home regular season conference game this season is set to take place Oct. 24 or Oct. 25 against Wright State. The rivalry with the Raiders is the longest continuous matchup in the NCFA. The two teams have met at least once every year since 2010, and the Buckeyes have not lost in the series since 2014.
A road trip to the University of Toledo on Nov. 8 rounds out Ohio State’s division schedule. Ohio State is undefeated against the Rockets since they joined the NCFA in 2021, and is also undefeated at the Glass Bowl. The Buckeyes are 4-0 all-time in the Glass Bowl, including a 2-0 record against the Rockets and 2-0 in the NCFA Semifinals. Last season, Ohio State defeated Toledo 58-8 in Columbus.
The Buckeyes are also tentatively scheduled to host George Mason on Oct. 3 in a non-conference NCFA matchup. Ohio State won the 2025 season opener at George Mason, 40-3, in a game that featured the top-2 programs in the NCFA rankings meeting in a regular season opener for the first time in league history.
Ohio State is working to fill the final two open weeks on their schedule – Oct. 10/11 and Oct. 31-Nov. 1 – and will announce those matchups and a completed schedule at a later date.
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