How Ohio State plans to make the most of historic Playoff home game at Ohio Stadium

COLUMBUS, Ohio — For Ohio State fans across the country, the 13-10 loss to Michigan was hard to get over. It provided more heartbreak for a fan base that was ready to end its losing streak in the rivalry and go to the Big Ten Championship Game for the first time since 2020.

Ericka Hoon felt every bit of that. Ohio State’s associate athletic director for event management and operations got home from work that Saturday and was in shock.

“I needed 24 hours to process everything that happened,” Hoon said.

The upset meant Ohio State had not only lost its fourth consecutive rivalry game, but it wouldn’t go to the Big Ten title game and couldn’t get a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff.

But that Monday, Hoon arrived at her office in the Fawcett Center feeling re-energized. Her staff had spent the year preparing for the possibility of hosting a Playoff game. All of the planning paid off when the selection committee revealed No. 8 seed Ohio State would host No. 9 seed Tennessee on Saturday night (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

“I was like, ‘OK, let’s go. We’re hosting a game in December — this is it, this is our chance,’” she said. “I was looking for that energy that week, but I think everybody was a little depressed. I was in that spirit of, ‘The game ends, win or lose, great — on to the next one.’ We’re having a football game in December.’”

The excitement was written all over Hoon’s face this week as Ohio State made its final preparations — along with Texas, Penn State and Notre Dame — for a historic weekend featuring the first on-campus Playoff games.

A lot of problem-solving goes into hosting these games on short notice, from something as small as how much power is needed to put on the game and where everybody can plug in to things as big as travel and hotel logistics. Some previously scheduled events even had to be moved around. Penn State announced last spring that it was moving back its winter commencement one day to accommodate a potential Playoff game. Indiana moved its commencement up to earlier in the day on Friday, so fans can make the three-hour trek to South Bend for the game.

Oho State didn’t have to do anything drastic with its scheduling, as commencement was on Dec. 15 and the city of Columbus is well-equipped to host a Saturday night Playoff game. But it’s Hoon’s job to make sure Ohio Stadium is ready when more than 100,000 people flood in for one of the biggest home games in the program’s history.

Hoon’s schedule is filled with meetings during football season. Each one helps her stay up to date with what’s going to happen on a game day at Ohio Stadium so her staff is able to pass along that information to every other department that’s involved.

Those meetings took over an even larger part of her calendar since the Dec. 8 selection show. Whether it was meetings with ESPN broadcast teams or the College Football Playoff operations staff and everything in between, Hoon said she’s added 20 meetings in two weeks.

And these are really just the final touches to a process that started over a year ago.

Every team that hoped to host a Playoff game had to put in a bid by Aug. 30. That includes a plan featuring every tiny detail about the stadium, from security to gameday logistics to small details like video board specs, a list of every mark on the field and in the stadium, diagrams and more.

Ohio State even had to find an indoor and outdoor field for a visiting team to use in case it needed to practice after its arrival. Tennessee informed Ohio State soon after the selection show it wouldn’t need the fields, but the option needed to be available.

The lengthy process turns into a hosting manual every school receives by mid-October. That informed the schools of rules they had to abide by for the game.

There’s even the technical side of things that Ohio State had to account for. The Big Ten and SEC use different technology for their video review process, so Ohio State had meetings to coordinate that, as well. Every logistical thing that could happen needed to be considered.

Ohio State also had to take into account the sheer amount of people that would be coming to the game.

The TV compound next to the stadium is the largest Hoon has seen, she said. ESPN’s “College GameDay” needs room for its morning and pregame shows, and “SEC Nation” also has a spot on the field, in addition to Urban Meyer and the Big Ten Network crew. Hoon and her staff have plenty of experience working with the televisions networks, so it’s not new; it’s just a lot of extra communication to make sure everybody is on the same page.

What they aren’t accustomed to doing is staging a game in late December. Saturday will be the first December game in Ohio Stadium history, and Hoon said outside of purchasing more equipment in case of a snow event, there’s not much else they can do to help fans be comfortable in the stadium.

The weather forecast at kickoff: 25 degrees with a wind chill of 17.

“We have things we can do for a hot game, cooling stations and added water, but never thought I’d have to think about the other end of the spectrum,” she said. “We’ve talked about it, but it’s a matter of layering up and being smart.”

Each host team is given $3 million by the College Football Playoff to use for anything they need to put on the game.

Ohio State began using that money for extra equipment in the stadium. As it started spending the funds, it scheduled a budget meeting to make sure it didn’t go overboard.

Caleb Clark, the associate athletic director for marketing and live events, had been dreaming up an ideal night game and Playoff atmosphere for a long time and came to the meeting with a list of things he wanted to do. As he began listing them off, Hoon’s eyes widened.

“He came in with a plan,” Hoon said.

For Ohio State, the Saturday night time slot offered the perfect opportunity. It’s not competing with the NFL schedule — the second of two NFL games is Ravens vs. Steelers at 4:30 p.m. — so Ohio State has the last game of the day and gets the spotlight to itself.

“It’s going to be cold — it won’t be pleasant from a climate perspective — but this is their game,” Hoon said. “You can tell this is how the CFP lined it up and how TV has it stacked. This is the marquee game.”

The Playoff allows Ohio State to be a bit more creative than it normally would because of sponsor requirements. Ohio State and other hosts were told they had to strip their sponsor presence from the field. The Buckeyes use the panels that wrap around the stadium to showcase sponsors, so now those can be used for stadium show purposes.

There will also be lasers in the tunnel upon the team’s entrance, a drone show and pyrotechnics everywhere.

“Anything we can blow up, we’ll blow up,” Hoon said.

Another big change is the pregame show. College Football Playoff rules force each team to be off the field 30 minutes prior to kickoff so that the bands can play before the game. That has been common in the Playoff for years, but at host sites, the visiting team doesn’t have to bring its full band. Tennessee is bringing just a pep band on Saturday.

That leaves a large chunk of time unaccounted for.

“That gave us a runway where we have 30 minutes to do whatever,” Hoon said. “I told Caleb the world is your oyster. He dreamed up a good thing.”

Hoon admits she doesn’t even know everything that Clark has in store for Saturday, but every time she hears the live events department talking, there’s another new idea.

“I’m excited to see what unfolds,” Hoon said. “It’s going to be fun.”

As kickoff nears, the excitement around the Fawcett Center continues to grow for the game. Friday is like the calm before the store. Though there’s immense pressure on Ryan Day and the Buckeyes on the field, Ohio State wants to put on a show for the entire world to see, win or lose.

It’s one last game in 2024. It’s the first Playoff game in Ohio Stadium. It’s a moment Hoon has to remind herself and her staff to take some time and enjoy, but also a moment they want to take advantage of.

“You can sense the excitement,” she said.