These days, the Penn State vs. Ohio State rivalry is as good it gets.
The Nittany Lions’ season sweep of the Buckeyes in men’s basketball underscored that fact.
Their 79-56 pounding of Ohio State last week before #10.9k fans in the BJC just provided the latest exclamation point.
And if that doesn’t do it for you, there was the thrilling, come-from-behind 19-18 win by Cael Sanderson’s wrestlers over Ohio State in a No. 1 vs. No. 2 battle royale two weeks ago in sold-out Rec Hall.
(Not to mention the grapplers’ 24-14 victory over the Buckeyes before 15,983 in the BJC in 2016.)
Add in the last two Penn State-Ohio State football games, for Nittany Lion better (Haley’s scoop-and-score comet) and worse (J.T.’s 13-for-13, 3-TD fourth quarter in The Unlucky Horseshoe), and you have a rivalry that the ‘Team Up North’ may be wishing for.
In sheer numbers, the purity of the rivalry between the sports teams of the Land-Grant institutions of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the state of Ohio couldn’t be more competitive.
We’re talking head-to-head, the meat of any true relationship, be it friend, foe or frenemy. And at times, for the Nittany Lions it’s all three with those nuts from Columbus.
Penn State was officially admitted into the Big Ten Conference in 1990. Most Penn State teams began Big Ten play in 1992, while football started playing a conference slate in 1993.
Thus, we could look at the history of the Penn State-Ohio State series. Not today, in the here, hate and now. Instead, we’ll point to two metrics to show that OSU vs. PSU is as hot a rivalry as there is not only in the East division in football, not only in the Big Ten, but perhaps in all of college sports.
THE BIG 5 IN THE PAST 5 YEARS
Penn State offers 31 varsity sports. Ohio State claims 37. So the potential exists for the two schools to face off nearly every weekend of the school calendar.
But for our purposes in this accounting of the past half-decade, we are only going to focus on the Big Five of the school’s sports programs — those that generate the most national attention and draw the most fans. They are: football, men’s basketball, wrestling, men’s ice hockey and women’s volleyball.
In those five sports, over the past five years (2014-2018), the margin of difference is almost as slight as it can get.
In head-to-head competition during that time, Penn State leads the rivalry at 24-22-2, thanks to dominance by Sanderson’s wrestling squad and Russ Rose’s women’s volleyball team, and the men’s hoops squads of Pat Chambers (s)weeping the Buckeyes in 2014 and 2018. Cool fact: Sanderson and Rose are next-door neighbors in Rec Hall.
Here’s the breakdown (volleyball only gets one win even if takes the match 3-0…which is usually the case):
Basketball (men) — Ohio State leads, 5-4
Football — Ohio State leads, 3-1
Ice hockey (men) — Ohio State leads, 12-7-2
Volleyball (women) — Penn State leads, 8-1
Wrestling — Penn State leads, 4-1
In overall points scored, the Buckeyes hold a slim five-point/goal advantage, when you count volleyball’s scores as games won, not overall scores for each match (i.e., a 3-0 win gets PSU three points).
ACROSS THE BOARD
Since the start of the 2016-2017 collegiate sports season and through this weekend, Penn State and Ohio State have met head-to-head 46 times. For this review, we won’t count multi-team events, like invitationals or conference or national championships where several teams compete, such as golf, cross country, track or wrestling.
Over the last 18 months, the Buckeyes hold the slightest of edges: 23 victories, 21 losses and 2 ties. In contests between men’s teams, the rivalry stands at 12-12-2. In women’s head-to-head contests, Ohio State leads 11-9. For Penn State, its teams in field hockey, women’s soccer and wrestling are each 2-0.
Among the Big Five over the past year-and-a-half, Penn State holds a 10-6-2 advantage. Here’s a breakdown:
Baseball — Ohio State leads, 2-1
Basketball (men) — Penn State, 2-1
Basketball (women) — Ohio State leads, 2-0
Field Hockey — Penn State leads, 2-0
Football — tied, 1-1
Gymnastics (men) — tied, 1-1
Gymnastics (women) — Ohio State leads, 2-0
Ice hockey (men) — tied, 3-3-2
Ice hockey (women) — Ohio State leads, 3-1
Lacrosse (men) — Penn State leads, 1-0
Lacrosse (women) — Penn State leads, 1-0
Soccer (men) — tied, 1-1
Soccer (women) — Penn State leads, 2-0
Softball — tied 1-1
Tennis (men) — Ohio State leads, 1-0
Tennis (women) — Ohio State leads, 1-0
Volleyball (men) — Ohio State leads, 6-0
Volleyball (women) — Penn State leads, 2-1
Wrestling — Penn State leads, 2-0
Where do things stand in team-by-team head-to-head for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons?
Tied, of course.
Penn State holds the edge in seven sports. As do the Buckeyes. Not to mention there are five ties.
