Ohio State Commencement: Indoors in December, The Horseshoe in May

Two rounds, and the venue tells you which one you are attending

Ohio State runs commencement twice a year in two different buildings, and the difference is bigger than a name on a calendar.

Autumn Commencement is 2:00 p.m. on Sunday 20 December 2026, at the Schottenstein Center. An arena, indoors, with a seat.

Spring Commencement is 12:00 p.m. on Sunday 9 May 2027, at Ohio Stadium. The Horseshoe, outdoors, seating a crowd many times larger.

If you have attended one, do not assume the other works the same way. A December ceremony is a controlled indoor event where the only weather question is the drive in. A May ceremony in a stadium bowl is an outdoor event with sun, shade and rain all in play, and no indoor equivalent that could hold the same crowd.

What each venue asks of you

The Schottenstein Center behaves like any arena. Arrive, park, find your section, sit down. December in Columbus means the planning is about the journey rather than the ceremony.

Ohio Stadium is a different exercise. A stadium commencement means a longer walk from wherever you park, a longer wait in the open before it starts, and a genuine need to think about sun as much as rain. Families who have done both usually describe the spring one as the day that needed preparation.

The noon start in May is worth noting on its own. It puts the ceremony across the middle of the day, so a family driving in from Dublin, 21 minutes out, is leaving mid-morning rather than at dawn.

Published years ahead, with one honest caveat

Ohio State is at the generous end of this project’s spectrum for forward planning. Its calendar runs several years out, with spring ceremonies at Ohio Stadium and summer and autumn ceremonies at the Schottenstein Center.

The university attaches its own caveat: times and locations remain subject to change. That is worth repeating rather than dropping, because a date published three years ahead carries less certainty than one published three months ahead, and the calendar says so itself.

What we checked, and what we could not

Both dates, times and venues come from Ohio State’s own future-commencement-dates calendar, read on 6 August 2026. Both weekdays were verified independently: 20 December 2026 and 9 May 2027 are both Sundays, matching what the university publishes.

Not established: ticket limits, parking arrangements, and any rain plan for the Ohio Stadium ceremony. None was published at this check, and the stadium’s weather exposure makes the last of those the one most worth watching for.