ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) -- The 2025 Ohio Football season is now less than three months from kicking off as the Bobcats will soon begin to defend their 2025 MAC Title. The team announced kick times and networks for select games on the 2025 schedule Thursday afternoon.
Thursday, Aug. 28 | 6:00 p.m. | Big Ten Network
What was originally supposed to be a Saturday kickoff was flexed into a primetime window on the Thursday before opening weekend. This game will be an opportunity for Ohio to showcase the 2025 version of itself on BTN and under the lights. Last season, the Bobcats traveled to face Syracuse week one and kept the game competitive showing signs of what was to come.
This year's opening week could provide Ohio an opportunity to do the same. Plus, they will face former defensive end Bradley Weaver after he transferred to Rutgers in the offseason.
There is no question which of the four non-conference games is the most anticipated for Ohio fans. And there is certainly an argument that the week two, home opener, with West Virginia is the most anticipated game on the entire schedule. The two schools are located just 150 miles from one another and will be meeting for the first time in over two decades.
It's the second time in the last three years that Ohio will play host to a Power 4 school. The previous ended in a 10-7 victory over Iowa State at the beginning of the 2023 season. And to give Ohio an edge in the matchup, it's the home opener in one of the toughest places to play in the country. Ohio is 17-1 overall and 6-0 against non-conference opponents at Peden Stadium since the start of the 2022 season.
Washington, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Oregon are the only programs with better winning percentages at home during that span.
The 9/6 matchup will also be the first time since 1949 that the Mountaineers will play in Athens. That content, played on Sep. 24, 1949 resulted in a 17-7 Ohio win and is the most recent time the Bobcats took down WVU.
Plenty has been made about Ohio State not being able to play night games and getting stuck with the weekly Big Noon slot. However, in the Buckeyes first prime time game of the year, they will host the Bobcats for the first time since 2010. That meeting, of course, is the infamous Rufus tackles Brutus game. The mascot war will likely not see a second chapter, however, Ohio gets an opportunity to play under the lights at one of the sport's most iconic venues.
Additionally, when the Bobcats suite up for the mid-September clash, they will face the defending national champions. While it will certainly be a massive challenge knowing Ohio State's success against in-state opponents, it's still a great opportunity for Ohio to showcase itself on a national state.
After three challenging Power 4 matchups to start the season, the Bobcats will return home and get their first and only FCS matchup of the season hosting Gardner-Webb. Although it's a step down in competition level, Ohio has had its fair share of issues putting away FCS teams at home.
Last year, it took a marvelous defensive effort to shut the door on Morgan State. The year prior, LIU remained in the game and didn't let the Bobcats pull away keeping things too close for comfort. And, who could forget the 2022 meeting with Fordham. It took a record-breaking performance that had 111 total points and over 1,300 yards of total offense for Ohio to hang on and win 59-52.
So, there will be no looking over the Bulldogs, as the Bobcats will look to finish the non-conference slate strong.
A few months ago this MAC opener may not have seemed to be much more than just 76th meeting between the Bobcats and Falcons. However, a change at head coach to Eddie George for BGSU makes this week five matchup more enticing.
It will also be a return to this head-to-head after the two did not meet in 2024. The lapse in the series was the first after 20-straight years with each other on the schedule. George will lead a Falcons team into Athens who haven't won at Peden since the 2014 season. Furthermore, Ohio has taken seven of the last eight against BG and will look to do the same in 2025 and start conference play with a win.
Ball State and Ohio met just five times from 2015-2024, however, as the two are now paired in one of the MAC's 'pods', this matchup will continue to be a yearly occasion. It's been a rather one sided affair as of late with Ohio winning in each of the five meetings since 2015. Amazingly, in those five games the Bobcats have scored an average of 41.6 points per game.
The 2024 meeting came on the final Friday of the regular season, and was the game that Ohio officially punched its ticket to the MAC Title game. While the 2025 matchup will not have as high of stakes being much earlier in the season, it will serve as a conference road test that the Bobcats will have to be ready for.
After a week off following the Ball State game, Ohio gets back on Frank Solich Field for a rather intriguing matchup with Northern Illinois. This year's meeting with the Huskies will take place on Ohio's Homecoming weekend and will likely be one of the highest attended games of the year. While there hasn't been a kickoff time announced yet for this game, history will tell us it's likely going for 3:30 p.m.
More importantly on the football side of things, this will be the final time Ohio meets NIU as a MAC opponent. With the Huskies set to depart for the Mountain West following the end of the 2025 campaign, this could be the final time for a while that the programs see each other. Even now the team's don't face off all that often as this year's game will be the 11th since 2000.
It will give Ohio a chance to end their MAC competition with NIU on a high as the Bobcats have lost five of the last seven with Northern Illinois.
Another one of Ohio's conference games that does not yet have a time or network attached to it, however, it does have positive history for the Bobcats. EMU has been one of the team's in the MAC that the Bobcats have been able to dominate. Although the two play sparsely, when they get together it's usually Ohio coming out on the winning side. In the 10 games since 2002, the Bobcats are 9-1, and somewhat unbelievably their lone loss came at home in 2016.
Eastern Michigan has not recorded a win against Ohio on their home turf since Oct. 16, 1999. What was a wild game that the Bobcats scored the game-tying touchdown, however, a missed extra point gave the Eagles a 27-26 win.
When they meet in the fall it will have been 9,506 days since EMU had a home win against Ohio. That history favors a Bobcats team that will be looking to finish MAC Saturday's with a victory.
For the past two seasons the Battle of the Bricks rivalry has been played in the afternoon snapping a streak of six-straight years that the annual rivalry was played at night. After two regular season meetings, and one postseason, arguably the conference's best rivalry will slot back into a prime time window.
Obviously, as there always is, there will be a lot riding on the 2025 Battle of the Bricks. A matchup date later in the season could mean title game implications. Revenge will be on the minds of the RedHawks after the 2025 MAC Championship. Plus, an all around distaste between two programs who played their 100th and 101st meetings last year, sets up another installment of the rivalry.
Just as Miami will be searching for revenge because of the title game, Ohio has some revenge on the mind as well. The RedHawks are the only team in the last three years to have won a game in Peden Stadium. Miami delivered a gut punch to the Bobcats after a 30-16 win in the 2023 season.
As is true for all three of the MAC Michigan schools, Ohio simply doesn't play them as frequently. And that stands true with WMU who the Bobcats have only matched up with 11 times over the last 25 years. This year's collision will be the first time they have met in MACtion since 2019, and will be the Bobcats only road MACtion game of the year.
Despite not meeting all that often, the two teams have put together a number of thrilling games. Three of the last five have all been close and have come down to the final moments. Including in 2019 when Ohio tied the game with nine seconds left in regulation only to fall in overtime.
The 2025 season is big for the Mid-Amercian Conference as it welcomes in UMass for there inaugural season in the league. And Ohio is one of four teams that gets a chance to host the Minutemen in their first MAC campaign. It won't be the first time that Ohio and UMass will meet, in fact, it will be the fifth time. And the previous four were all pretty wild games, that ended in Bobcat victories.
In four meetings from 2012-2018, the two teams combined for 353 points (88.25/per game). When the pair met in consecutive seasons (2017 & 2018), Ohio scored 58 points in both. No doubt, the Bobcats will be looking to channel similar offensive energy when they come together in a MACtion matchup.
There is no way to know in late May/early June if this game will have any actual meaning. Either team could be completely out of the title game picture, or it could be a win and you're in for either.
In last year's meeting, it was a mid-season game that ended up being Ohio's most explosive offensive performance of the season. The Bobcats put up 47 points and recorded nearly 500 yards of offense in en-route to a 31-point win. It was also Ohio's first game after losing to rival Miami a week-and-a-half prior. The Buffalo win was the beginning of a seven-game winning streak that the Bobcats carry into the 2025 season.
These two have played every year since 2014 (excluding 2020 because of COVID complications), and as mentioned this game could carry a lot of weight coming on the last day of the MAC regular season, or it might not. If it does, well that could favor Ohio as the Bobcats have won five of their last six regular season finales (excluding 2020).