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According to CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein, the Ohio State men’s basketball team will be visiting the Windy City this December to get a jump on the Big Ten season, as they take on the Illinois Fighting Illini. Rothstein also reports that the Buckeyes will host Minnesota in December as well.
Source: Illinois will host Ohio State as part of part of the Big Ten's early season conference games in December. The game will be played in Chicago and not in Champaign.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) August 20, 2018
The B1G experimented with having conference games before the new year last season, and the Buckeyes took advantage, picking up victories over Wisconsin and Michigan to give them a leg up heading into the traditional league slate.
The full Big Ten schedule will be released in the coming days, but Rothstein has a pretty comprehensive list of the early season match-ups in his Twitter feed.
After an exhibition game against UNC Pembroke, Chris Holtmann’s Buckeyes will officially open their season against the Cincinnati Bearcats in the Queen City on Nov. 7. The rest of the non-conference schedule will feature tilts against Creighton, Syracuse, UCLA, and more.