Buckeye fans can use their face as their ticket at Ohio Stadium this season. Ohio State fans can opt in to use secure facial authentication for faster entry at “Express Entry” gates at the Shoe this year, marking a significant expansion of a program that debuted in a more limited form during the 2025 season. Here’s a full breakdown of how the technology works, who can use it, and what’s new for 2026.
What Is Express Entry?
Express Entry is a facial authentication system that allows fans to enter Ohio Stadium without needing to pull out a phone, wallet or physical ticket. Fans simply stand in front of a facial scanner at designated gates, and the system confirms their identity by matching their face to a photo they registered in advance — similar to how facial recognition unlocks a smartphone. Ohio State Athletics has been explicit that this is not the same as broader facial recognition technology, which scans an area and compares faces against a large database regardless of whether someone opted in. Express Entry only works for fans who have voluntarily enrolled and linked their face to their own ticket.
The program is run in partnership with Wicket, the same company that provides facial ticketing technology for venues like the Cleveland Browns’ Huntington Bank Field and the New York Mets’ Citi Field. To enroll, fans sign into their Ticketmaster account and take a selfie to associate their face with their ticket, either ahead of time online or at the stadium using QR codes posted near the gates. Enrollment is completely free.
From Students-Only to Expanded Public Access
Express Entry isn’t brand new to Ohio Stadium — it first launched during the 2025 season, making Ohio State just the second major college program in the country to adopt the technology after the University of Florida. Last season, the program was limited primarily to student ticket holders and fans with premium tickets entering through the Huntington Club entrance, with dedicated lanes available at Gate 34 for Block O general admission and Gates 36-38 for reserved student seating.
After a successful rollout in those premium and student areas in 2025, Ohio State is expanding Express Entry to include certain public gates for the 2026 season, opening the technology up to a much broader group of Buckeye fans beyond just students and premium ticket holders.
What Fans Should Know Before Using Express Entry
Even with facial authentication handling entry at the gate, fans will still need their mobile ticket accessible on their phone once inside the stadium, since ushers and Redcoats use it to verify seat locations. Express Entry simply replaces the need to present a ticket at the gate itself — it doesn’t eliminate the need for a ticket altogether once inside the venue.
Ohio State has also been direct about privacy, stating that no facial data is stored, processed or transmitted by the university itself, with the enrollment and verification process instead handled through Wicket’s platform under its own terms of use and privacy policies. Participation remains entirely voluntary, and fans who prefer traditional mobile or print tickets can continue using those methods as usual.
Part of a Broader Fan Experience Upgrade for 2026
The expansion of Express Entry is just one piece of a larger set of gameday improvements Ohio State is rolling out for the 2026 season. Alongside the facial authentication expansion, Ohio State Athletics has also introduced enhanced mobile ticketing and fraud protection features, including dynamic barcodes that now appear in fans’ ticket accounts within 48 hours of an event through Ticketmaster’s in-app technology. Fans can still add tickets to their phone’s mobile wallet ahead of that 48-hour window for easy access. The changes are part of a broader initiative that also includes AI-powered Wi-Fi upgrades throughout Ohio Stadium, all aimed at modernizing the gameday experience for Buckeye fans.
Why This Matters for Ohio Stadium Gamedays
For a venue that regularly welcomes more than 100,000 fans on a Saturday, anything that speeds up entry and reduces bottlenecks at the gates carries real practical value. Early feedback from students who used the program during its 2025 rollout was largely positive, with fans who tried it out describing the process as noticeably faster than waiting in traditional ticket-scanning lines. Expanding that same convenience to public gates in 2026 gives a much larger share of Ohio State’s fan base the chance to skip the line entirely on gameday.
Final Thoughts
Ohio State’s expansion of Express Entry for 2026 represents a meaningful step forward in modernizing the gameday experience at Ohio Stadium, building on a successful trial run with students and premium ticket holders a season ago. With public gates now included in the program, more Buckeye fans than ever will have the option to skip the line and enter the Shoe using nothing but their own face. Combined with enhanced ticketing security and Wi-Fi upgrades, Ohio State is clearly investing in a smoother, more modern gameday experience heading into the 2026 season.
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