Ohio State’s 2024 season doesn’t have too many landmines. The Buckeyes are one of the favorites to win a national championship next year in part because of the talent on the roster but also because there aren’t too many games where the Scarlet and Gray will be expected to slip up.
Recently, early odds were released for a number of college football games for this upcoming season. Ohio State was listed as a favorite at Michigan at home and Penn State on the road and is a one-point underdog against Oregon in Eugene.
In Big Ten play, the Buckeyes are also the favorite and the oddsmakers don’t expect many issues for the Scarlet and Gray in conference play. Ohio State is a massive 24-point favorite in the early October matchup against Iowa at Ohio Stadium, according to DraftKings. The Buckeyes and the Hawkeyes have met 65 times in the two teams’ long history, with the Buckeyes owning a 47-15-3 all-time record. The first meeting between the two programs came in 1922 when Iowa defeated the Scarlet and Gray 12-9 in Columbus, Ohio.
While the Hawkeyes won three of the first four meetings, with one 0-0 tie, Ohio State began to establish dominance over the series relatively early on. The Buckeyes’ first win came at home in 1926 and the Scarlet and Gray won five of the next six contests. After earning a 14-7 win in 1948, Ohio State came back with the biggest win in the series two years later, defeating Iowa 83-21 in Columbus. Between 1963 and 1980, the Buckeyes established the longest winning streak in the series, defeating Iowa 16 consecutive times. The Scarlet and Gray also had an eight-game winning streak against the Hawkeyes from 1992 to 2003. Iowa’s longest winning streak against Ohio State is two games, which the Hawkeyes have accomplished twice, the last time coming in meetings in 1959 and 1960.
Iowa had the chance to make it three two-game winning streaks against the Buckeyes after famously upsetting the Scarlet and Gray in their 2017 meeting. Ohio State came into Iowa City in 2017 fresh off a comeback win at home against Penn State. Things quickly went south for the Buckeyes when J.T. Barrett threw an early pick six and the Scarlet and Gray could never recover, losing 55-24, the largest margin of victory for the Hawkeyes in the series.
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The last meeting between the two Big Ten teams was in 2022 in Columbus. Iowa got out to an early 7-3 lead at the Horseshoe before Ohio State scored 13 straight points to end the first quarter. The Hawkeyes kicked just one more field goal and the Buckeyes rolled to a 54-10 win. Quarterback C.J. Stroud threw for 286 yards and four touchdowns.
