The President of THE Ohio State University has delivered the death knell to the greatest college football tradition as we know it. E. Gordon Gee has officially gone on record supporting the move of the Ohio State-Michigan game up the schedule, distancing it in time for the Big Ten’s new conference championship game in 2011. While some most of the national landscape remains indelibly scornful of the plight of Buckeye and Wolverine fans everywhere, those two fanbases are well aware of the implications of altering one of the great rivalries in all of sport.
“Tradition” is a bad way to frame the context of the game. National implications aside, this is more about what the game means to both programs FOR EVERY SEASON. It’s always its own Super Bowl, whether either team is 11-0 or 0-11. It’s a climax to the season, and really the Big Ten schedule as a whole. It is, as I said yesterday, a season unto itself.
And it’s not just about the game. It’s about the week leading up to the game, the last game of our regular season. Speaking as an Ohio State alum, Michigan Week–from the end of last week’s game to Saturday kickoff–is the greatest WEEK to be a Buckeye. It’s exciting because great seasons stand to be destroyed while underachieving seasons stand to be salvaged. Take how you celebrate college football–any college football game–and multiply it by 100. That’s the Michigan game. Regardless of the records, it’s a great game EVERY YEAR. It’s an event EVERY YEAR. It’s Ohio State’s Masters tournament, Indy 500, and Game 7 rolled into one Saturday afternoon. The last Saturday afternoon.
I said that The Game is a climax to the season, and both teams literally shoot their wad in this tilt. They empty their playbooks, they pull out gadget plays, and the fans on both sides realize that this is it before the postseason. Everything is better–the beer, the parties, the football–because after that game, your season could very well be over.
Tradition is paying homage to a gravestone. The Game lives and breathes and becomes a marvel to behold for the schools involved. At least it did before Gee delivered what will surely be a fatal blow to the way both schools sell and operate and their programs. The Michigan Game will soon become a Michigan game, and that’s something that most people won’t understand.
I think I’m gonna puke.
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Boo freaking hoo. Try crying about it a little more and see if it changes. At least make a compelling argument, like keeping it at the end of the season has no implications on the conference title game because that game is decided by standings and not the polls. Actually, nevermind, just keep crying about it.
I feel ya, man. This is like when UCF stopped scheduling Liberty. It’s like nobody cares about tradition anymore.
UM-OSU should kick off the season, just like Fsu-Miami since that rivalry is going so well…
Regardless of the records, it’s a great game EVERY YEAR.–Extremely untrue
They empty their playbooks, they pull out gadget plays,–Lloyd Carr and Jim Tressel laugh at this.
Who cares? Remember all the hype when it was #1 v. #2 a few years back and we were all forced to pretend these teams were really good? And then, once they were forced to play outside their (horrible) conference, they got exposed and embarrassed. If the game were played early on, we could avoid the manufactured hype of a game that anually features (at best) two very average teams.
you think it’s a mistake now. But you’ll learn to tolerate it (by drinking yourself into a stupor)
just think of it as practice for child-raising
Spare me. No one outside of those frozen shitty states cares about your stupid little meaningless game pitting two slow, overrated teams against one another four douchebag superiority. The SEC laughs at your pee wee football.
So what you’re saying is, you like this game?
@steve – As you’re a tone-deaf ass who can’t comprehend basic rhetoric, you’re really in no position to judge whether an argument is compelling.
@Bacon Rules! – Since your memory is apparently only five years long, you too should shut the fuck up about college football and its fundamental elements. Also, go learn about the fucking Iron Bowl while you’re shutting the fuck up.
@Patrick – And finally, some other moron who doesn’t know shit. The fact that the ratings for the Game, nationwide, are what they are (and the Big Ten Network is worth what it’s worth) means that plenty of people outside Michigan and Ohio care. Go home, learn to spell (because spellcheck lets “four” go while a basic education, even in the SEC, wouldn’t), and let the adults discuss matters beyond your ken.
I think Michigan has to finish higher than 9th for this to be a meaningful game anymore.
They play football north of Kentucky?
From the perspective of an outsider (UGA fan), I don’t think leaving the game at the end of the schedule cheapens the Championship at all. Leave the game where it is, it will probably have implicatons on who wins the division more often than not. The SEC hasn’t changed any of its rivalries to accomodate the title game and things seem to be going fine.
@Craig: So you admit both teams are shit NOW. Excellent, I’m glad we could come to an agreement on this issue.
They empty their playbooks, they pull out gadget plays
I heard last year that Tressel even let Terrelle Pryor THROW the ball!
But seriously, I missed this game last year. Florida was playing FIU.
Where’s the dick joke? Maybe a little Cancer Rules?
That’s what you get for hiring your president from Vanderbilt…. no sense of football tradition….