Cleveland State will open the 2024-25 season on November 5th with arguably its toughest test of the entire campaign: a battle two hours down Interstate 71, at Ohio State.
The Buckeyes, of course, need little introduction to anyone in the state of Ohio, or in the larger college basketball community. Last season, head coach Kevin McGuff’s 11th in Columbus after time at Xavier and Washington, saw OSU go 26-6 overall. Despite the tsunami of hype that followed Caitlin Clark and Iowa around the country all year, it was actually the scarlet and gray that took the Big Ten’s regular season title with a 16-2 league mark, including a split in their matchups with the Hawkeyes.
Things fell off the rails rather abruptly in the postseason, however, as eighth-place Maryland stunned Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals. OSU nevertheless received a second seed in the NCAA Tournament field but, after clocking the expected first-round win over Maine, dropped a 12-point decision to Duke in the Round of 32.
Though Jacy Sheldon has since departed for the WNBA, All-Big Ten first teamer and All-American honorable mention forward Cotie McMahon will bring her 14.7 points and 6.3 rebounds per game back to the Schottenstein Center for another year. Six-foot-three Ajae Petty, who averaged a double-double at Kentucky last season, has joined the Bucks through the transfer portal, as has former Oregon point guard Chance Gray. OSU’s typically-stellar recruiting class, headlined by consensus top-five prospect Jaloni Cambridge, should play a significant role throughout their schedule as well.
Another notable on the roster is senior Taylor Thierry, whose twin sister, Haley, plays at Horizon League rival Youngstown State. Taylor was an every-game starter for the Buckeyes who averaged 11.3 points per game last year.
CSU will receive a $32,000 guarantee from their downstate foes, according to the game contract, obtained, along with others revealing the Vikings’ non-conference schedule, through a public records request. That figure falls beneath the massive $43,000 sum the school collected for playing Iowa in Des Moines last year, but is comparable with the reported $30,000 that Iowa State paid out for the 2022-23 season opener.
The tipoff in Columbus is just one of a staggering eight non-conference games that CSU will play on the road, featuring a pair of holiday multi-team events and several strong mid-major teams.
Cleveland State will take on Louisiana-Lafayette and Lamar on November 29th and 30th at the previously announced Big Easy Classic. That Thanksgiving weekend MTE will be followed by another just before Christmas: the San Diego Invitational, played at San Diego State University on December 20th and 21st. The Vikings are scheduled to take on Stephen F. Austin and Hawai’i in their two games, both of which will count against the NCAA game limit, as schools are only allowed one exempt MTE per season. The Rainbow Wahine and SFA each won 20 games last year and finished in the top 150 of last year’s final NET rankings.
In all, the Vikings are slated to play four top-150 teams prior to their HL slate, a figure that also includes Ohio State (9th) and Lamar (126th), and indicates an effort to significantly improve a schedule that proved a drag on CSU’s own NET ranking for much of 2023-24.
Both of Cleveland State’s MTEs are pay-to-play, with the Big Easy Classic carrying a price tag of $3,000 and the San Diego Invitational running $10,000.
Most of the remainder of the schedule was built through home-and-home agreements. Two such games during the coming year – a home contest with Bowling Green and a game at Akron – fulfill the back half of contracts signed prior to last season. The exact dates of those meetings were undisclosed at the time the agreements were signed, although the Zips announced on Monday that their game against CSU will take place on November 16th, while a BG release on Wednesday placed the Falcons’ visit to the Wolstein Center on November 12th.
The list of home-and-homes also includes a contest at Chicago State on November 9th, the regular season’s first Saturday. The Cougars have visited Cleveland during each of the last two seasons, though both meetings were standalone games. The 2024-25 meeting is the first of a home-and-home agreement that will bring Chicago State back to the Wolstein Center in 2025-26.
Eleven days after leaving the Windy City, and four after stopping in the Rubber City, the Vikings will travel to Niagara on November 20th, a long-awaited game that was originally scheduled for the 2022-23 season before it was wiped out by a historically-prolific blizzard. The Purple Eagles lost to CSU in a blowout last year, but eventually bounced back to take a 30-win Fairfield team to overtime in the MAAC championship game and qualify for the WNIT.
The Vikings will play Bethune-Cookman at home on December 13th, though the game will take place in Woodling Gymnasium, as the Wolstein Center is booked for the university’s fall commencement the next day. Last season, of course, CSU played its three Viking Invitational games in the building that served as the team’s primary home court until 1991, sweeping Austin Peay, Chicago State, and Kansas City over Thanksgiving weekend. The Vikings will make a return visit to Daytona Beach, FL in either 2025-26 or 2026-27.
All told, including the 20 games involved with the Horizon League schedule and the non-conference games revealed through the records request, Cleveland State has 30 games on the books, one shy of the NCAA-permitted 31. That final contest will likely be at home against a lower-division opponent.
Cleveland State’s 2024-25 Non-Conference Schedule
| Date | Opponent |
| November 5, 2024 | at Ohio State |
| November 9, 2024 | at Chicago State |
| November 12, 2024 | Bowling Green |
| November 16, 2024 | at Akron |
| November 20, 2024 | at Niagara |
| November 29, 2024 | vs. Louisiana-Lafayette (New Orleans, LA) |
| November 30, 2024 | vs. Lamar (New Orleans, LA) |
| December 13, 2024 | Bethune-Cookman |
| December 20, 2024 | vs. Stephen F. Austin (San Diego, CA) |
| December 21, 2024 | vs. Hawai’i (San Diego, CA) |
| TBA | TBA |
