College Basketball: Ohio State and Cincinnati to compete in a home-and-home

In college basketball, top non-conference match-ups are major headlines. Ohio State and Cincinnati have agreed to a home-and-home.

Starting in the 2018-19 season, the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Cincinnati Bearcats have agreed to a home-and-home. For college basketball, this is great news, as it pits two of the best midwest programs against each other to kick off back-to-back seasons. It has been reported that the first game of the series (2018-19) will be played at Cincinnati in Fifth Third Arena before playing at Ohio State in Value City Arena in the next season (2019-20).

Over the course of their history against each other, Ohio State and Cincinnati have played ten times. In the series, Ohio State holds the 6-4 advantage. In this century, the Buckeyes are 2-0 against the Bearcats, taking victories in 2006-07 and 2011-12. Both of these victories were by double figures and occurred while Ohio State was ranked in the top-10 of the country. Cincinnati will certainly be looking for revenge.

In addition, the two programs met in back-to-back National Championship games while being ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the country. This took place during the 1961 and 1962 seasons, with Cincinnati taking home the hardware both times. For the future though, each of the two teams will have plenty of talent which should make for competitive games.

This move is another sign that new head coach Chris Holtmann is making changes at Ohio State. First, he has been hot on the recruiting trail, nailing new commits left and right for the future of the program. In addition, he has already started to follow through on his promise of more challenging non-conference schedules for the Buckeyes.

As 247Sports reports, Holtmann had this to say about the home-and-home:

"“We have great respect for the UC program and Coach (Mick) Cronin,” Holtmann said. “The idea of challenging ourselves in the nonconference while also providing an attractive game for our collective fan bases certainly made sense to us. We understand the challenge of opening the season on the road vs. a high-caliber opponent with a younger team provides some risk but we felt like it was the right decision at this time."

This upcoming season might be a rebuilding one for Ohio State, but Holtmann’s incoming recruits will make the Buckeyes a young, but talented team in 2018-19 and 2019-20. With that being said, the Buckeyes are going to be very strong and this will be a great test for them early in the season. Cincinnati is always one of the top teams in the American Athletic Conference and is a great match-up.

Speaking of Cincinnati, they will also be strong over the next few seasons. For 2017-18, they are experienced and expected to be a top-25 team in the country. Head coach Mick Cronin has proven to be successful year after year and that should continue. He has plenty of recruits coming in for both his classes of 2017 and 2018 and they will develop well under the coaching staff of the Bearcats.

247Sports also caught up with Mick Cronin to hear his thoughts on the deal:

"“This is a great thing for Ohio, for basketball in Ohio and for the fans of these great universities,” Cronin said. “I want to thank everyone involved in making this happen. We are very excited about reopening our arena next season. Supporting this and agreeing to play Cincinnati in a home-and-home series is a first class move by Ohio State, Coach Chris Holtmann and the OSU administration.”"

Cincinnati is a dangerous program to play in the non-conference as they are typically already well-polished and ready to compete. Playing against a young Ohio State team will give them a solid test early in the season as well, making them even stronger for when they reach AAC play. With Wichita State now joining their conference as a top program, the Bearcats will need to fight harder to take the regular season title year in and year out.

Next: Ohio State's 2017-18 season preview

This is certainly a great development for the future of college basketball. Not only are two outstanding programs going head-to-head in back-to-back seasons, but they are also hopefully ignited a great in-state rivalry. Along with Xavier and other programs, Ohio is a great basketball state and seeing the teams within it collide is a great sight for the general college basketball landscape.