The Ohio State Buckeyes’ 2026 season will be one for the books. Ryan Day’s squad is looking at one of the toughest schedules in the country. Even legendary Urban Meyer never had to navigate something quite like this. Yet when Ryan Day was asked about it earlier today, surprisingly, the head coach didn’t break too much sweat over it.

“When you look at our schedule this year, you take a step back and you say, ‘Well, it’s probably the most difficult schedule in the history of the school,'” Ryan Day admitted outright on Always College Football. “But to me, it’s exciting. Because with the way the new playoff format is set, you know, we can learn a lot about ourselves and get really salty. And really, because when you go through games that are difficult and challenges that go all the way to the fourth quarter, I mean, you can learn a lot about your team.

“We certainly don’t want to take any losses [this] year, but we are going to have games that go down in the fourth quarter for sure, with some of the teams on our schedule… We take all those things into consideration, being smart. But at the end of the day, what matters is being ready when it comes down in time to the playoffs.”

The Buckeyes’ suffering starts from Week 2 with a trip to Austin to play the Texas Longhorns. OSU might have gotten the best of them twice, but Texas isn’t a side that will fall so easily; at least not this version of the Longhorns. Next up is an away game at Indiana, the reigning National Champions. Indiana beat them twice in 2025, and they are going to be just as dominant in 2026. No other program is scheduled to play two road games against teams that could realistically be ranked #1 and #2 (Texas and Indiana).

To make matters worse, they will also have to face USC on the road, and Oregon at home. And there’s Michigan to wrap up Big 10 play with. That’s basically the who’s who of the conference on one calendar.

However, the good news for fans is that being ranked No. 1 in schedule difficulty isn’t necessarily a bad thing anymore. Because of the 12-team playoff format, the selection committee gives a lot of credit to teams like this and cuts some slack. Even if they trip up and lose two or three games against such caliber, the playoff committee could give them the benefit of the doubt.

Last season, Oklahoma found itself in the playoffs despite its schedule being ranked as the 8th-most difficult calendar in the country. The Sooners struggled on the offense after quarterback John Mateer injured his hand, but the defense powered them all the way through to the final 12. The Buckeyes this year are in a much better shape and will most definitely get the pass if they lose two games.

OSU has an exciting offense this season, which will be run by debutant offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. And on defense, OSU returns the genius of Matt Patricia. With stars like Julian Sayin, Jeremiah Smith, and upcoming names like Riley Pettijohn and Devin Sanchez on defense, there’s a lot to look forward to in the Buckeyes’ 2026 run, despite the heat of the competition in the schedule.

Looking back in hindsight, when you compare this to 2016, it really puts things into perspective.

Ryan Day’s 2026 schedule vs Urban Meyer’s 2016 schedule

Although Urban Meyer’s 2016 Ohio State had had the third-highest strength of schedule, the biggest shocker when you look at these two years is the sheer number of landmines on the schedule.

Back in 2016, Urban Meyer really only had to sweat about four ranked teams: Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Michigan. Now in 2026, Ryan Day is staring down a gauntlet of seven or maybe eight Top 25 opponents. On top of that, in the old days, you could cruise through half the season against the cupcakes-alike teams, but in this new 18-team Big Ten super-conference, those easy Saturdays are long gone, unfortunately.

The travel schedule alone in 2026 is enough to make a coach lose sleep, especially compared to the relatively ‘local’ 2016 slate. Meyer’s farthest trip was a quick 2-hour flight to Oklahoma. The rest were standard Midwest bus rides to places like Madison (Wisconsin) or State College (Penn State). Day is seeing trips to Texas, the West Coast, and more.

Then again, the playing fields are even now, all thanks to NIL. In 2016, easy games against teams like Rutgers (won 58-0) were common. In 2026, even middle-tier games like those at Nebraska would give a run for their money. Only time will tell if the college football blueblood will be able to brave this relentless schedule.