The plan was for Ohio State to be in the Bahamas this week. To be even more accurate, that was both the first and the second plan.
As the men’s basketball team prepared for the 2019-20 season, the Buckeyes saw the fruits of years’ worth of lobbying when they were announced as one of eight participants in the next season’s Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. OSU's inclusion in the marquee event, held annually during the week of Thanksgiving, was to be a first for the program. It was scuttled, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSo Ohio State went back on a long waiting list. The team was finally offered another shot in 2025, and as of October 2024, the Buckeyes were fully planning to head to the Atlantis resort for three games inside the Imperial Ballroom.
Until they weren’t. Ohio State eventually withdrew and paid a fee of $100,000 to do so. Instead, the Buckeyes will host Mount St. Mary’s on Nov. 25 before playing the return game of a home-and-home series with the University of Pittsburgh on Nov. 28.
Even though midwestern skies in late November are no match for their Bahamian counterparts, coach Jake Diebler felt compelled to reverse course.
“Currently, there’s an NIL component to scheduling, and we’ve had to be aggressive in scheduling to help in that area,” he said. “Until some things change with the fabric of those traditional (multi-team events), you’re going to see some different avenues pop up, and you’re going to see teams explore other avenues because there’s just too much that goes with them.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“If we can boost our NIL or boost whatever by looking at some other games, strength of schedule, all of that stuff, you’ve got to take into consideration all of those things. That’s what we did.”
"Currently, there’s an NIL component to scheduling," Ohio State men's basketball coach Jake Diebler said, "and we’ve had to be aggressive in scheduling to help in that area."Under Diebler, Ohio State's goals when it comes to scheduling are to 1) play a home-and-home against a high-major foe each year, 2) have as many home games as possible, and 3) annually play a game somewhere in Ohio. This season, the Buckeyes will face West Virginia in Cleveland, welcome seven nonconference opponents to the Jerome Schottenstein Center and play three neutral-site games that offer NIL compensation not provided by traditional Feast Week events such as the Maui Invitational and the Battle 4 Atlantis.
One possible multi-team event that would check the financial box: the Players’ Era Festival, an 18-team event in Las Vegas. Now in its second year, the plan is to expand to 32 teams next year while continuing to put money in the participants' NIL coffers. Diebler has not said, however, whether Ohio State would participate in 2026.
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“Those events (like Maui and the Battle 4 Atlantis) had to be planned out far in advance, so now we’re on a little bit more of a year-to-year basis,” he said. “Those events are great, and because I’ve been around the game forever, I’ll always have a place in my heart for those types of events and I’m not saying we won’t ever be a part of them. I just think for us right now there’s some other factors that we have to consider before we commit three or two games somewhere else.”
Ohio State is not alone in making this calculus. For instance, around the same time that the Buckeyes withdrew from the 2025 Battle 4 Atlantis, Auburn also pulled out. The Tigers then joined the field for the Players’ Era event.
The result is that some tournaments previously considered marquee events are losing their lustre, and the talent normally ticketed for destination events trickles elsewhere.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe 2025 Battle 4 Atlantis features just one ranked team: No. 24 Vanderbilt. Colorado State, Saint Mary’s, South Florida, VCU, Virginia Tech, Western Kentucky and Wichita State comprise the rest of the field. Only Vanderbilt and Saint Mary’s are projected to receive at-large bids for the 2026 NCAA Tournament in a Nov. 18 bracket projection by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.
“The good thing for us is the Big Ten is an elite conference, so you know ... you’re going to have high-level strength of schedule [built in],” Diebler said. “You are trying to consider the metrics for at-large berths while you put your schedule together.”
It’s the new reality of the sport, even if it might not be what everyone would prefer.
“If I really step back and had time to think about it, I’d probably wish I was in the Bahamas a lot,” Diebler said. “It would be great. I’m sure my wife would like to play in the Bahamas or Maui or stuff too, but we’ve got some other things we’ve got to focus on.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOhio State men's basketball beat writer Adam Jardy can be reached at [email protected], on Bluesky at @cdadamjardy.bsky.social or on Twitter at @AdamJardy.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Why isn't Ohio State playing in the 2025 Battle 4 Atlantis this week?
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