Looking at WVU’s success against some of the top programs from Ohio
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Our Border Wars series continues by taking a look at how West Virginia Univerity’s football, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball programs have fared against competition from the state of Ohio.
So far this week, we have covered how WVU has performed against teams from neighboring states Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
Ohio-based schools have brought stiff competition to the Mountaineers over the years, and the Mountaineers will continue to play programs from the Buckeye State moving forward.
Ohio State
The Buckeyes have been a thorn in the side of West Virginia in many sports. The women’s basketball team has never beaten Ohio State, and the Mountaineer football program’s last win against the Buckeyes came in 1897.
Randy Mazey’s group went 1-1 against Ohio State on the diamond this year. Meanwhile, Bob Huggins’ squad has won each of the last three matchups against the Buckeyes, including knocking off No. 2 Ohio State at a neutral site in 2019.
Overall Record: 20-44
Cincinnati
The Bearcats are a future member of the Big 12 and will join the conference on July 1, 2023. That will end a decade-long streak of none of West Virginia’s programs from the three major sports facing Cincinnati.
2012 was the last time either basketball program faced the Bearcats. In fact, both hoops programs have a four-game winning streak against Cincinnati. And the women have won six of the last seven. WVU football is 16-3-1 against the Bearcats.
Overall Record: 51-35-1
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Ohio
Dawn Plitzuweit inherited a WVU women’s basketball program that is 8-0 against Ohio University. While her team last played against the Bobcats two years ago, 2009 is the last time one of the other three programs has entertained Ohio.
The Bobcats are 9-7 all-time against the WVU men’s basketball program. Ohio and West Virginia football have a three-game away-home-and-home series slated to begin in 2025 and end in 2029.
Overall Record: 74-48-1
Youngstown State
Meanwhile, the WVU men are 7-0 against the Penguins of Youngstown State. That includes a victory this past season that prompted YSU head coach Jerrod Calhoun to say it’s time to “Get that statue up” in honor of Huggins.
Mazey’s Mountaineers swept a three-game series against the Penguins this March, and are now 19-6 against Youngstown State on the diamond in Morgantown. Bo Pelini’s YSU squad lost handily to No. 14 WVU in 2018.
Overall Record: 46-16
Kent State
The Golden Flashes are 0-4 against WVU on the gridiron and have not defeated the Mountaineer women’s basketball team in each of their last six tries.
John Beilein’s 2004 Mountaineers defeated Kent State in the first round of the NIT. That was the last meeting between the two programs.
Overall Record: 29-24
Akron
The Zips are the only team on this list that West Virginia has never faced on the football field.
West Virginia’s baseball team has enjoyed the most success against Akron, winning 21 of the 33 meetings. However, the WVU women’s basketball program has the best winning percentage against the Zips. The Mountaineers have won seven of their eight contests against Akron.
Overall Record: 31-15
Bowling Green
There is not much history between the Falcons and Mountaineers, but what little history there is has almost always been positive for West Virginia.
WVU is 3-0 against Bowling Green on the football field and is a combined 5-0 against the Falcons on the hardwood.
Overall Record: 11-2
Xavier
For whatever reason, the Musketeers have rarely been an opponent on the Mountaineers’ schedule. The two schools have faced off just once in football, and that was before World War II. They have played just twice in baseball, with the last meeting coming a year before this writer was born.
Bob Huggins was the last WVU head coach to beat Xavier, among the leaders of the programs being examined. And he’ll get the next crack at his old rival. Huggins and the Mountaineers will travel into enemy territory to take on Xavier as part of the Big 12-BIG EAST Battle.
Overall Record: 5-4
Miami (OH)
Mazey’s Crazies picked up a pair of wins against Miami (OH) in 2021, which gave the skipper’s program an all-time winning record against RedHawks. They have met just three times.
The 2008-09 season was the last time the WVU men’s basketball team faced Miami.
Overall Record: 5-1-1
Toledo
1937 was not only the same year as WVU football’s only game and win against Xavier, but it was also the same season that WVU played and defeated Toledo for the first and only time. Five years later, the most important meeting between a West Virginia and Toledo program took place.
It was the 1942 NIT semifinals. The Mountaineers picked up a 51-39 win and went on to win the tournament in the next game. That win over the Rockets led to the Mountaineers’ only basketball championship, given that the NIT was still the premier college basketball tournament at the time.
Overall Record: 6-5
WVU vs. these Ohio-based programs: 278-194-3