Having déjà vu?

Version 3.0 of the Big Ten fall football schedule was released Saturday, with the Buckeyes' new slate featuring eight games spanning Oct. 24 to Dec. 12, with four home matchups and four on the road.

The ninth game won't be determined until each team's seed within their division is set at the end of the regular season, as the final week will see each team matched up with its mirror seed. That way the No. 1 in both division will face off to determine the champion.

Now that we have the schedule in hand, we're breaking down how things look for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State is diving into the deep end considerably more than it was in previous iterations of its schedule.

Even when Version 2.0 of the schedule was announced in the first week of August, the Buckeyes were slated to coast into the season with two quite heavily favorable matchups with Illinois and Rutgers.

Now though, Ohio State begins with Nebraska and Penn State in the first two weeks alone.

In facing off against the Cornhuskers Week One, the matchup represents the two programs that seemed to make the hardest push for salvaging the fall season over the past five weeks.

The Buckeyes haven't lost to Nebraska in nearly a decade, but there's no doubt the Scott Frost-led group won't be the walk in the park that a nonconference matchup like Bowling Green State would have been to begin the year.

In their matchup a year ago in Week Five, Ohio State had no trouble dispatching of the Huskers 48-7 in their own backyard, as sophomore quarterback Adrian Martinez had a nightmare performance to finish with just eight completions and three interceptions.

However, it was just one year prior that the unranked Huskers gave the Buckeyes a decent recent for their money with a 36-31 game in Columbus.

No too worried about a Week One date with Nebraska? Don't worry, things really heat up for Ohio State in the following matchup.

Penn State may have lost its best player when All-American linebacker Micah Parsons opted out of the season in August, but don't think the Nittany Lions won't have a shot to give the Buckeyes all they can handle.

Ohio State got some breathing room with an 11-point win in last year's matchup, but in the three meetings prior, the game had been decided by a total of five points.

One factor that should benefit the Buckeyes is that even though the game is taking place in Happy Valley, Justin Fields and company won't have to contend with the deafening "white out" crowd that would typically provide quite the home-field advantage.

This Halloween matchup may be Ohio State's scariest until the final week of the season, and unlike a usual year, they'll have just one game to "warm up" for it beforehand.

The last time a Big Ten schedule was announced, quite a few feathers were ruffled when the conference's most iconic rivalry was not in its usual place.

Always played on the final week of the regular season, Ohio State-Michigan was moved to Week Eight on Oct. 24 in Version 2.0, with the rationale that divisional rivalry games should be moved up earlier in the season in case of COVID-19 outbreaks threatening to derail the latter half of the schedule.

Now though, The Game is back in the final-week slot, although the Dec. 12 date will be considerably later than many are used to.

It's going to be a cold one in Columbus for Ohio State-Michigan, but without fans in the stands –– for now –– the players and coaches will have more to worry about in that department than you will.

Between Ohio State's matchups with Penn State and Michigan, there's quite a bit of relative fluff on the schedule.

The Buckeyes should be heavily favored to knock off five-straight Big Ten foes through the middle of the season, with Rutgers and Michigan State bookending the stretch.

If there is a snag, it could be that three of those five matchups take place on the road, with the Buckeyes playing an unusual back-to-back away swing with games at Illinois and Michigan State on Nov. 28 and Dec. 5.

Former Buckeye coach Greg Schiano is back at the helm for Rutgers, though that won't likely be much of a factor in the game's outcome, and Michigan State is expected to stumble a bit in the first season of the post-Mark Dantonio era, as the once formidable power in the East is coming off consecutive 7-6 seasons.

Indiana could be a fun matchup if for nothing other than the quarterback battle. The Buckeyes didn't face then-injured Hoosier QB Michael Penix Jr. a season ago, but the Maxwell Award watch list candidate graded among the top quarterbacks in the country last year according to Pro Football Focus.

On the 2.0 schedule, the Buckeyes were slated to face four West division teams, with Illinois, Nebraska, Purdue and Iowa.

Both the Hawkeyes and Boilermakers have gotten the better of the Buckeyes in the past few seasons, which inherently set up some intriguing storylines, but those matchups are no more.

The shortened schedule has scrapped both Purdue and Iowa from the Buckeyes' fall slate, and while neither should have had a chance on paper to knock off Ohio State, they were two opponents that would have entered with the confidence of beating the Buckeyes in their last meetings.

For that reason alone, Ohio State probably benefits from avoiding a couple extra West division foes this year –– or at least for the first eight games.