Ohio State Buckeyes Could Explore Bailing on Big Ten According to Top CFB Analysts

The Ohio State Buckeyes are one of the biggest college football conglomerates, not only on the field but off it, too.

With two national titles since the 2014-15 season (and the beginning of the College Football Playoff), the Buckeyes arguably have more leverage than ever before. In an era where TV rights and NIL dominate college football, an argument could be made the Buckeyes have mastered the art of their craft. Excellence, above all else, is a standard in Columbus, not an expectation.

Knowing that, the College Gameday Podcast crew dissected a scenario where the Buckeyes, Michigan Wolverines and Penn State Nittany Lions (three of the sport's biggest brands) would opt to leave the Big Ten to essentially own their own NIL, TV rights, revenue and annual scheduling.

This part of @CollegeGameDay podcast with @ReceDavis has produced some “reaction” - would Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State ever bail on the Big Ten to do their own thing? pic.twitter.com/1ii8l8K1vE
— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) February 17, 2026

"If you had this one game as independents or in a little group, and then we throw in the Ohio State-Penn State game and the Michigan-Penn State game, and maybe we add a couple of these others... and then you take all your others [and] you go play in the MAC for your other leagues or do whatever you want to schedule out," ESPN's Dan Wetzel said.

His colleague, Rece Davis, agreed.

"When are we going to get to the point when you're trying to deal with the revenue of saying, 'Why am I helping these guys?" Davis asked. "They're not bringing anything to the table.' ...I've got to believe it happens because... right now in a lot of ways they are giving up both [money and power]... to people who are not really helping them."

Wetzel said if the deal was packaged the right way, other teams like the Oregon Ducks and USC Trojans may be interested in copying the model the Notre Dame Fighting Irish currently use: full autonomy of their football program.

Wetzel suggests some of the biggest players in sports media would definitely be interested in if the money made sense from an ROI standpoint.

"If you took that thing out to bid and let everybody from Netflix to ESPN, Fox, CBS, whatever, and said, 'There's $150 million [just for The Game]...' that's $75 million a school," Wetzel added. "That's the same amount you're getting for everything right now. Now you got all that, you got all your other home [games]... you can play eight home games a year... that pot of money is sitting there. And the more you expand... at some point, it's just fiscally irresponsible for those schools not to look at it."

Of course, this conversation is simply hypothetical. However, with the way the sport continues to evolve, anything is possible, especially if finances are the top thriving force of the decision- making.

We will see if this goes anywhere.