There is a very welcome return to the print world on your local newsstand as The Sporting News teamed with 10Ten Media and McClatchy Lifestyle & Entertainment to produce its first college football preview magazine in a decade.

We have already looked at the Athlon Sports preview and the Lindy’s Sports preview magazines.

Ohio State is coming off a 12-2 season where coach Ryan Day‘s Buckeyes tied Indiana for the Big Ten regular season championship at 9-0. The Buckeyes were ranked No. 1 for most of the season after knocking off preseason No. 1 Texas 14-7 in the teams’ season opener in Columbus.

But there would be no repeat national championship for the Buckeyes. Ohio State dropped a 13-10 decision to Indiana in an historic one-versus-two edition of the Big Ten championship game. The No. 2-seeded Buckeyes were then upset by No. 10 seed Miami (Fla.) 24-14 in the Cotton Bowl national quarterfinal game. That left OSU with a very unfulfilling 12-2 record to cap the 2025 season.

Day has 11 starters returning off that team after watching seven of his players get selected in the first two rounds of the 2026 NFL draft, including four first-round selections.

The Sporting News comes in with its preseason top 10 and has Indiana picked No. 1 in both the Big Ten and in the national championship race. Ohio State is then No. 2 with Georgia third. The rest of the top 10 is Texas fourth, followed by Notre Dame, Oregon, Miami (Fla.), Ole Miss, Oklahoma and USC.

Big Ten teams also listed in the top 25 include Michigan at No. 13, Penn State at No. 17, Iowa at No. 19, Illinois at No. 22 and Washington at No. 24.

Plotting the playoff, The Sporting News published a bracket but curiously did not use its own rankings to seed the teams. Here was what they had:

* First Round Byes – No. 1 Indiana (Big Ten champion), No. 2 Georgia (SEC champion), No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 4 Ohio State.

* First Round Games (Dec. 18-19 on ESPN and TNT) – No. 12 Boise State (Pac-12 champion) at No. 5 Texas, No. 11 BYU (Big 12 champion) at No. 6 Oregon, No. 10 USC at No. 7 Miami (Fla.) (ACC champion), No. 9 Oklahoma at No. 8 Ole Miss.

* Quarterfinals (Dec. 30-Jan. 1 on ESPN and TNT) – The Fiesta Bowl will be played Dec. 30, while the Cotton, Rose and Peach bowls will be played on Jan. 1. (Ohio State would be slotted to play the Texas-Boise State, likely in the Fiesta Bowl.)

* Semifinals (Jan. 14-15 on ESPN) – The semifinals will be played at the Orange Bowl Jan. 14 and the Sugar Bowl Jan. 15.

* National Championship Game (Jan. 25 on ESPN) – The title game will be played at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

Here is what The Sporting News had to say about Ohio State:

“The Buckeyes have one of the toughest schedules in the nation, one that features a nonconference road trip to Texas (Sept. 12) early in the season. Ohio State beat Texas 14-7 to open last year. Road trips to Iowa (Oct. 3) and Indiana (Oct. 17) will be huge, especially the matchup with the Hoosiers after last year’s loss.

“Ohio State has not lost more than two games in a season since 2011, but this is the highest degree-of-difficulty schedule in the Day era. The Buckeyes will be in the Big Ten championship and College Football Playoff mix, and the ever-present pressure to do it every year remains.”

Under the Heisman Watch, TSN’s Bill Bender lists three favorites in Notre Dame QB CJ Carr, Texas QB Arch Manning and Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith. OSU QB Julian Sayin is also among 10 other players listed as potential Heisman hopefuls.

Within the Big Ten, the top six are Indiana, Ohio State, Oregon, USC, Michigan and Penn State.

The Sporting News preseason magazine is 146 pages and retails for $16.99. Click here for ordering information for The Sporting News annual.

Below, we look at the 2026 Ohio State schedule with The Sporting News top 25 rankings for those opponents.

Sept. 5, Ball State, home, 12:30 p.m. (Big Ten Network)

Sept. 12, Texas (No. 4), away, 7:30 p.m. (ABC)

Sept. 19, Kent State, home, noon (FOX)

Sept. 26, Illinois (No. 22), home

Oct. 3, Iowa (No. 19), away

Oct. 10, Maryland, home, 3:30 p.m. or 8 p.m. (TV TBA)

Oct. 17, Indiana (No. 1), away

Oct. 31, USC (No. 10), away

Nov. 7, Oregon (No. 6), home

Nov. 14, Northwestern, home

Nov. 21, Nebraska, away

Nov. 28, Michigan (No. 13), home, noon (FOX)

Dec. 5, Big Ten Championship Game at Indianapolis, 8 p.m. (FOX)