Ohio State set for late-season date with Northwestern at Wrigley Field
COLUMBUS — Ohio State is officially set to face Northwestern at Wrigley Field on Nov. 16.
Because Northwestern is building a new Ryan Field, the team will have to play its home games for the 2024 and 2025 seasons at different locations, both on and away from campus.
Notably, the university announced last month that Northwestern football will play a majority of its home games this season at the Lanny and Sharon Martin Lakeside Facility on the university’s Evanston campus. The facility is at the doorstep of Lake Michigan and currently plays host to Northwestern’s lacrosse team as well as its men’s and women’s soccer teams.
Ohio State, however, will head to Wrigley Field, the home of the MLB’s storied Chicago Cubs, to play Northwestern this coming fall. So will Illinois two weeks later, meaning that the Wildcats will play five home games at the Lakeside Facility and two at Wrigley in 2024.
Wrigley, approximately 8.8 miles away from Northwestern’s now-demolished Ryan Field, has a capacity of 41,649 for baseball games and has held three college football games since 1938, all of which have included Northwestern.
The Wildcats hosted Illinois at Wrigley in 2010, but, due to safety concerns, both teams switched sides after every possession, in effect scoring on only end zone in the 48-27 Fighting Illini victory.
Since, renovations to Wrigley and a repositioned football field in the ballpark has allowed Northwestern and its subsequent downtown opponents — Purdue in 2021 and Iowa in 2023 — to use both end zones. Purdue defeated Northwestern, 32-14, in 2021, and Iowa defeated Northwestern, 10-7, in 2023.
The Wildcats are still winless in Wrigley.
Ohio State leads the all-time series, 65-14-1, and has won 10 in a row, with the Wildcats’ last victory against the Buckeyes coming in 2004.
Remember, the 2024 Big Ten football season will debut the Flex Protect XVIII model with a newly-expanded conference that features 18 members, including UCLA, USC, Washington and Oregon.
Big Ten teams will play every other league opponent at least twice — once home and once away — in a five-year span (2024-28), during which they won’t play rotating opponents more than three times.
Ohio State has one protected annual rivalry, and that’s against Michigan. As for Ohio State-Northwestern, the programs will square off in 2024 (at Northwestern, in this case Wrigley), 2026 (at Ohio State) and in 2027 (at Northwestern).
The 2024 Ohio State Schedule
Aug. 31 vs. Akron
Sept. 7 vs. Western Michigan
Sept. 21 vs. Marshall
Sept. 28 at Michigan State
Oct. 5 vs. Iowa
Oct. 12 at Oregon
Oct. 26 vs. Nebraska
Nov. 2 at Penn State
Nov. 9 vs. Purdue
Nov. 16 at Northwestern
Nov. 23 vs. Indiana
Nov. 30 vs. Michigan | 12 p.m. (FOX)
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