Why one anticipated Ohio State matchup in Columbus has lost its luster

When the 2025 Ohio State football schedule was released, the matchup on Nov. 1 in Columbus vs the Penn State Nittany Lions was one that many fans had circled as a big game. 

While Ohio State has had Penn State’s number, having gone 9-1 vs the Nittany Lions in the past 10 years, many of those games have been nailbiters and have gone down to the wire. 

Last year’s matchup in State College resulted in a 20-13 Ohio State win, which came after Penn State’s failed fourth-down conversion at the goal line with five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

The rematch in Columbus this year was supposed to be a highly anticipated matchup. Coming off the national championship win, Ohio State lost a ton of key pieces and was looking to reload, while Penn State appeared to have one of its best rosters in recent history.

Multiple key contributors chose to return for the Nittany Lions and take one last shot at  Big Ten and National Championships. Drew Allar, Nick Singleton, Kaytron Allen, and Dani Dennis-Sutton all came back and gave the Penn State faithful plenty of hope for the 2025 season.

Fast forward to this Monday in mid-October, and the matchup that once seemed destined to be a classic has completely lost its luster. In a disastrous turn of events, Penn State has gone from national contender to a program wandering in the wilderness. 

After losing their whiteout game at home to Oregon (a respectable loss), the Nittany Lions followed that up with back-to-back losses against UCLA and Northwestern, both 20-plus point underdogs.

After the Northwestern game, HC James Franklin announced that Drew Allar would be out for the season with a leg injury, and then Franklin himself was dismissed as the head coach of the proud program from Pennsylvania. 

Meanwhile, the Buckeyes are winning in impressive fashion and are cementing themselves as one of the top teams in the nation. After this weekend’s win over No. 17 Illinois, the Buckeyes remain the #1 team in the country and keep rolling against the competition.

Ohio State’s defense was also a question mark after losing defensive coordinator Jim Knowles to Penn State. Instead, Ohio State has arguably been the best defense in the country this season, and they are the number one scoring defense, giving up only 5 points/game.

The matchup against the Nittany Lions was supposed to be a litmus test for both programs on where each stood in the national landscape in 2025. Instead, Ohio State continues to ascend while Penn State continues to tumble with a 3-3 record. 

Eyes will still be on Ohio Stadium on Nov. 1, but this game no longer feels like a high-pressure situation for the Buckeyes. 

Ohio State is much stronger right now, and they can handle the Nittany Lions with relative ease. Whether that is the case or whether Penn State can rise to the occasion and pull off an upset that keeps getting harder to imagine will remain to be seen.