Ohio State canceled Washington series due to increased difficulty of B1G schedule, per report

Ohio State canceled its upcoming series with Washington due to the expected increase in difficulty it will face in its conference schedule, per a report.

That’s according to CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd, who cited the Big Ten’s addition of USC and UCLA for the 2024 season.

Sources: The Ohio State cancellation of Washington was nothing more than a reaction to a tougher conference schedule with the addition of USC and UCLA. Don't read anything more into it.

— Dennis Dodd (@dennisdoddcbs) February 16, 2023

Ohio State officially announced the cancelation of the series on Wednesday. The Buckeyes and Huskies were set to meet in 2024 and 2025. The series was initially agreed to back in 2017.

“We are very disappointed that our student-athletes, staff and Husky Nation won’t get to experience these two games with Ohio State,” Washington athletic director Jennifer Cohen said in a release. “Everyone has had these dates circled for a number of years and we were looking forward to these opportunities to compete against the Buckeyes. We are in the process of finding new opponents for the 2024 and 2025 seasons and will provide an update as soon as we have one.”

The Buckeyes are currently scheduled to play against Southern Miss and Western Michigan in nonconference affairs in 2024. They’re expected to add another home game to that slate soon.

USC and UCLA are set to join the Big Ten for the 2024 football season. The league has not yet announced its schedule for 2024.

Other marquee nonconference opponents on Ohio State’s schedule for future years include Notre Dame, Alabama, Georgia, Texas and Oregon.