Ohio State leads Penn State 26 to 14 and has won nine straight, a run that has swallowed the whole of the recent rivalry. The two do not play in 2026 or 2027, the first two year gap since Penn State joined the Big Ten, and the next meeting is in 2028. The rivalry’s most important game, though, was a Penn State win, and it invented the White Out.
| All time series | Ohio State 26, Penn State 14 |
| First meeting | November 16, 1912, Penn State 37 to 0 |
| Most recent | November 1, 2025, Ohio State 38 to 14 in Columbus |
| Current streak | Ohio State, nine, 2017 to 2025 |
| Largest margins | 63 to 14 both ways: Penn State in 1994, Ohio State in 2013 |
| Penn State’s last win | 2016, 24 to 21 in the White Out |
| Next meeting | 2028 |
The Nine Straight
Ohio State has won every meeting since 2017, and the margins have widened. The first four of the nine were decided by a touchdown or less, including 27 to 26 in 2018 in front of the largest crowd Beaver Stadium had ever held to that point, when Dwayne Haskins threw two touchdowns in the final seven minutes. The last two, 20 to 13 in 2024 and 38 to 14 in 2025, were not close, and the 2024 game set the current Beaver Stadium record of 111,030. Our Beaver Stadium page covers that.
2005: The Game That Made the White Out
Penn State, unranked in the preseason and 6 and 0 in October, beat No. 6 Ohio State 17 to 10 at night in State College with a student section wearing white and making enough noise that the Buckeyes’ offence struggled to hear. National coverage of the crowd that night is the reason the White Out exists as a full stadium event; it had been a student only initiative in 2004 and became stadium wide in 2007. Penn State went 11 and 1 and won the Big Ten.
2016: The Blocked Field Goal
Ohio State was ranked second and led 21 to 7 in the fourth quarter when Penn State scored, then blocked a field goal that Grant Haley returned 60 yards for the winning touchdown. The 24 to 21 result sent Penn State to the Big Ten title and the Rose Bowl, and it is the last time the Nittany Lions have beaten the Buckeyes. The White Out record is 13 and 8, and that game is the reason it is not worse.
1994: Sixty Three
Penn State’s unbeaten 1994 team, in its second Big Ten season, beat Ohio State 63 to 14 in State College with Kerry Collins and Ki-Jana Carter. It remains the largest Penn State margin in the series and one of the reasons the 1994 team is regarded as the best the program has produced, despite losing the national title vote to Nebraska. Ohio State returned the exact score in 2013, 63 to 14 in Columbus, on the way to a 12 and 0 regular season.
Why No Game Until 2028
The Big Ten’s 18 team format dropped divisions and protected rivalries, and the rotating schedule for 2026 and 2027 does not pair Penn State and Ohio State in either year. It is the first gap in the series since Penn State’s arrival in 1993, and it removes what has been the Big Ten’s most consistently consequential game of the past decade.
Before the Big Ten
The two played sporadically as independents. Penn State won the first meeting 37 to 0 in 1912, then Ohio State won all but one of the next dozen through the 1970s. The series was 8 and 4 to Ohio State when Penn State joined the conference. In 33 Big Ten meetings since 1993, Ohio State has won 22.
The Bottom Line
Ohio State leads Penn State 26 to 14 and has won nine straight since 2017, the longest run in the series. Penn State’s 2005 win created the White Out and its 2016 win is the last. The two do not play again until 2028. Our Ohio State vs Michigan page covers the Buckeyes’ other rivalry.