Ohio State-Cincinnati 2014 to be a night game on Big Ten Network

The Big Ten announced early Tuesday afternoon that Ohio State's intrastate date with Tommy Tuberville and Cincinnati Sept. 27 will be a night game and air on the Big Ten Network (Channel 1333 on Time Warner Columbus-Delaware). The two sides will kick at 6 p.m. ET in Ohio Stadium.

The Buckeyes and Bearcats, who have an overlap of fan support and allegiances, have met six times in the modern era on the gridiron with OSU victorious all six times. The Bearcats last topped the Buckeyes in 1897. The two schools met four times from 1999-2006 with the Bucks winning by an average margin of 30-13. The Bearcats are entering head coach Tommy Tuberville's second season with the school and are coming off a 9-4 (6-2 in The American play) 2013 campaign which ended in a lopsided Belk Bowl defeat at the hands of North Carolina, 39-17.

For Ohio State, this represents the Buckeyes' fourth currently scheduled night game this coming fall, the most in school history, with some speculating there's still the potential for a fifth in the OSU's Nov. 8 trip to East Lansing to take on defending Big Ten champs, Michigan State. This will also mark the first time in school history the Buckeyes will have hosted three night games. As hard as it is to believe, the Buckeyes will have only hosted fourteen night games ever prior to this season.

In terms of the rest of their 2014 night slate, Ohio State's biggest non-conference game, Virginia Tech, will be an 8 p.m. ET ESPN game Sept. 6. A month and change later, the Buckeyes' trip to face James Franklin and Penn State on Oct. 25 will take place at 8 p.m. ET on ABC/ESPN/ESPN2. The following weekend after that, OSU will host Illinois at 8 p.m. ET on ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 as well as the two schools battle for the Illibuck.

Some rumblings have suggested that this contest has been a moment Tuberville and his staff have been building for since first taking the job, with a win (which would represent the first over Ohio State by an in-state school since 1921 when the Buckeyes lost to now Division III Oberlin) reaping massive recruiting multiplier benefits. Urban Meyer is undefeated in regular season night games since coming to Columbus.