Top-ranked Ohio State plays its first road game of the season on Saturday night at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium against No. 4 Texas, with kickoff at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC. Both teams arrive 1-0 after lopsided openers: the Buckeyes beat Ball State 56-3 and the Longhorns beat Texas State 59-7. It is the third meeting between the programs in 20 months. Ohio State won the January 2025 College Football Playoff semifinal 28-14, then opened last season with a 14-7 win over Texas in Columbus. That loss knocked the Longhorns off the preseason No. 1 line and started a 10-3 year that ended with a Citrus Bowl win over Michigan.
The rematch turns on two quarterbacks who spent the summer working the same Manning Passing Academy camp. Arch Manning went 17 of 30 for 170 yards in last year's loss to Ohio State, a game he has said left "not a lot of good memories." He opened this season 20 of 27 for 305 yards and four touchdowns against Texas State, spreading the ball to eight receivers. Julian Sayin won his first career start in that Columbus game and has not lost on the road since, going 5-0 in road starts with receiver Jeremiah Smith as his primary target. Ryan Day brings an 83-12 record at Ohio State into Austin; Steve Sarkisian is in his sixth season at Texas after back-to-back playoff trips.
The latest news cuts against the home team. Texas running back Derrek Cooper is out with an ankle injury, and Sarkisian said he will be in a boot for the foreseeable future, leaving the backfield to Arizona State transfer Raleek Brown. Ohio State reported no injuries coming out of its opener and none during the week. Sportsbooks nonetheless list Texas as a 1.5-point favorite with a total of 49.5, which CBS Sports notes is the first time in 33 games that Ohio State has been an underdog. Texas has not beaten the AP No. 1 team since 2008, and ESPN's College GameDay is on campus for the morning broadcast.
Polymarket's game-winner market reads the matchup the same way the books do. As of Saturday morning it priced Texas at about 52.5 percent and Ohio State at about 47.5 percent, a near coin flip that has barely moved over the past week. The odds are a snapshot of trader sentiment, not a forecast; a one-point favorite at home against the defending No. 1 is about as evenly matched as a September game gets.
The game decides more than a September ranking. The winner leaves Austin with the season's first top-five nonconference win on its playoff résumé, and the loser carries a marquee defeat into conference play with no chance to avenge it before December. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. ET, and the market settles when the final whistle blows.
