A Trip to Kinnick Stadium Nine Years in the Making
Ohio State hasn’t played a football game at Kinnick Stadium since 2017. That alone should tell you something about how this rivalry usually goes. On Saturday, October 3, the No. 7 Buckeyes finally return to Iowa City, and the trip carries plenty of history worth unpacking before kickoff at 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS.
This isn’t a rivalry built on constant back-and-forth drama like Ohio State-Michigan. It’s something different — a series where one program has spent more than a century systematically owning the other, with just enough Iowa upsets sprinkled in to keep Buckeye fans from ever fully sleeping on the Hawkeyes.
The All-Time Series: Ohio State’s Dominance, By the Numbers
Ohio State leads the all-time series 48-15-3 across 68 total meetings dating back to 1922. That’s a winning percentage north of 75% for the Buckeyes in a rivalry that’s been going on for more than a hundred years. A few numbers stand out even more once you dig into the details:
- Ohio State’s largest margin of victory: 83-21, way back in 1950 — a 62-point blowout that remains the most lopsided result in series history.
- Iowa’s largest margin of victory: 55-24 in 2017, a genuinely shocking result that Buckeye fans still remember vividly.
- Ohio State’s longest winning streak: 16 straight games, spanning from 1963 all the way to 1980. For nearly two decades, Iowa simply couldn’t beat Ohio State at all.
- Iowa’s longest winning streak: Just two games, back in 1959 and 1960 — the shortest possible definition of a “streak.”
Even the closest games in series history tend to lean Ohio State’s way. The two teams have tied three times (1924, 1947, and a wild 24-24 finish in 1988), and some of the nailbiters have gone Ohio State’s way by the slimmest of margins, including a 27-26 win in 1990 and a 7-6 win all the way back in 1929.
How Ohio State’s First-Ever Meeting With Iowa Actually Went
Here’s a fun piece of trivia most fans don’t know: Ohio State didn’t win the first matchup in this series. The two programs first met on November 18, 1922, in Columbus, and Iowa actually won that game 12-9. Iowa also won the very next meeting in 1923, 20-0, on the road in Columbus. So despite Ohio State’s overwhelming all-time dominance in this series, Iowa actually started out 2-0 against the Buckeyes before Ohio State’s near-total control of the rivalry began to take shape in the decades that followed.
The 2017 Upset That Still Haunts Buckeye Fans
No conversation about this rivalry is complete without revisiting 2017. Ohio State entered that game ranked No. 5 in the country. Iowa was unranked. On paper, it looked like a routine Big Ten win for the Buckeyes. Instead, Iowa delivered one of the most memorable performances in program history, blowing the doors off Ohio State 55-24 at Kinnick Stadium in a result that shocked the entire sport. It remains not just Iowa’s largest win in the series, but one of the signature victories of the entire Kirk Ferentz era in Iowa City. For an Ohio State program that rarely loses to the Hawkeyes, that game has taken on almost legendary status among Iowa fans — and understandably remains a sore subject in Columbus.
That 2017 loss is also exactly why this year’s trip back to Kinnick Stadium carries a little extra weight. Ohio State hasn’t set foot in that building since taking that beating nine years ago, and while the Buckeyes have posted lopsided wins over Iowa in Columbus in the years since — 54-10 in 2022 and 35-7 in 2024 — none of those results happened in Iowa City, where the environment, the crowd noise, and the memory of 2017 could make this a different kind of atmosphere entirely.
Ohio State Has Dominated the Modern Era of This Rivalry
While Iowa’s 2017 upset makes for a great story, it’s very much the exception rather than the rule in the modern version of this series. Since 1989, when Ohio State and Iowa began meeting on a more regular basis as Big Ten opponents, the Buckeyes have gone an eye-popping 17-3. And when it comes specifically to games played in Iowa City, Ohio State has historically fared even better on the road, sitting at 8-2 all-time in Kinnick Stadium.
Ryan Day’s own head-to-head record against Iowa only reinforces the trend. In two meetings as Ohio State’s head coach, Day is a perfect 2-0 against the Hawkeyes, with both of those wins coming by comfortable margins in Columbus. Saturday’s game will be his first true road test against Iowa specifically — and his first chance to exorcise any lingering Kinnick Stadium ghosts from 2017, even though he wasn’t the head coach for that particular loss.
Why This Year’s Matchup Feels Different
This isn’t just another routine early-October Big Ten game, either. Both teams enter Saturday’s matchup ranked, with Ohio State sitting at No. 7 nationally and Iowa hovering in the 14-17 range depending on the poll. Iowa enters the game undefeated at 3-0, having already knocked off Michigan on the road, 20-19, giving the Hawkeyes real credibility and a signature win of their own heading into this one. That’s a notably different Iowa team than the one Ohio State has steamrolled in Columbus the past two meetings.
Add in the fact that College GameDay is reportedly headed to Iowa City for the occasion, and it’s clear this year’s edition of the rivalry carries more national attention than usual — a far cry from some of the more forgettable, lopsided meetings buried in the middle of this series’ history.
What Ohio State Needs to Avoid Repeating
If there’s one lesson Ohio State fans should take from this rivalry’s history, it’s that comfort has been costly in the past. The Buckeyes have entered games against Iowa as heavy favorites plenty of times over the decades and mostly handled business — but 2017 stands as proof that this series is capable of producing a genuine stunner when Ohio State isn’t fully locked in on the road. Combine that history with Ohio State’s own recent struggles putting away fourth-quarter leads this season, and there’s a real incentive for the Buckeyes to treat Saturday’s trip to Kinnick Stadium with more urgency than the lopsided all-time series record might otherwise suggest.
The Bottom Line Heading Into Saturday
Ohio State holds an overwhelming historical advantage in this rivalry, a dominant recent record against Iowa specifically, and a perfect mark under Ryan Day. But history also shows that Iowa is fully capable of delivering a signature upset when the Buckeyes are complacent on the road and this year’s Iowa team, fresh off knocking off Michigan, looks more dangerous than the versions Ohio State has blown out the past two seasons. Whether Saturday’s game adds another lopsided Ohio State win to the record book, or becomes the next chapter in Iowa’s list of memorable upsets, one thing is clear: this rivalry’s history makes every trip to Kinnick Stadium must-watch television for both fan bases.
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