ANN ARBOR, Michigan. – With a pang of nostalgia, traditionalists have noted that this year’s game between Michigan and Ohio State might have been the last of its kind.
Since the 1970s, no rivalry in college football has been played with more at stake. This game determines legacies, alters the careers of coaches and, in most cases, decides the race of the Big Ten. This season, the stars aligned for one of the biggest games between Michigan and Ohio State ever played, a 30-24 Michigan victory that put the Wolverines on track for a third straight trip to the College Football Playoff and left Ohio State outside looking in. .
With the Big Ten eliminating its divisions and expanding to 18 teams next season, a rematch between Michigan and Ohio State in the conference championship game could become a reality. The new 12-team College Football Playoff will have room for both teams, making the regular season matchup less decisive. In this new world, it’s hard to imagine a game between Michigan and Ohio State mattering as much as this one.
Are we sure that’s such a bad thing?
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Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh was asked Monday about the furor surrounding the rivalry and said, in essence, that he believes it has gotten out of hand. The problem is not the rivalry itself, Harbaugh said, but everything around it: the hype, the vitriol, the media attention and the endless pressure.
“I think it’s very crafted for the television show that people want to see,” Harbaugh said. “It’s not healthy for student-athletes on both sides when you try to put so much (pressure) on it and someone practically thinks it’s life or death.”
This year’s game was particularly tense, in large part because Harbaugh had to watch it at home on his couch. A buildup of hostilities between the two programs, magnified by relentless media attention, came to a head when Harbaugh was suspended three games by the Big Ten for the Michigan scouting and sign-stealing scandal.
There is no need to repeat the drama that surrounded both pregame shows. Anyone who has spent a few minutes reading the message boards or comment sections should know this. This season was a perfect storm of ridiculously high stakes, incendiary storylines, and moral outrage on both sides. It’s hard to tell fans to keep the game in perspective when each show’s daily existence revolves around beating the other.
Michigan and Ohio State fight each other 365 days a year and aren’t afraid to admit it. When a rivalry is all-consuming, anything that happens at either school becomes fodder for dispute. Mutual obsession leaves little room for tension reduction, only constant cunning.
No coach or player on either side would think of showing up at Big Ten media days and saying, “This year I plan to take the rivalry a little less seriously.” Harbaugh said the opposite in 2021, when he vowed to win the Big Ten or die trying. He was speaking metaphorically (I think), but his players got the message. A major theme that season was Michigan’s renewed emphasis on Ohio State, illustrated by the “Beat Ohio” drill and other daily reminders. It paid off with Michigan’s first win against Ohio State since 2011.
Love him or hate him, Urban Meyer was maniac in setting up the Buckeyes to beat Michigan. He pushed Harbaugh to the limit, and now Harbaugh has done the same to Ohio State coach Ryan Day. The look on Day’s face after a third straight loss to Michigan showed the toll this rivalry takes on the losing program.
Coaches are paid a lot of money to deal with that pressure. The players don’t. The reality is that NFL players make millions of dollars for performing in games that mean less to their fans than Saturday’s game did to Michigan and Ohio State fans.
Players can benefit from name, image and likeness deals, but they offer a fraction of the money and none of the security of a guaranteed NFL contract. When Michigan offensive lineman Zak Zinter was carted off the field with a broken leg, it was a brutal reminder of the risks players took to maintain these rivalries.
It was no coincidence that Harbaugh used his subsequent media availability to repeat his call for revenue sharing with players. He watched the game at home and attended the endless commercial breaks like everyone else. The game attracted a massive audience, largely due to the drama and intrigue surrounding the rivalry.
“A lot of it seems very elaborate from outside the two programs,” Harbaugh said. “I’m not going to go so far as to say ‘artificial,’ but it’s promoted to no end.”
Ohio State has lost three in a row to Michigan after eight straight wins. (Adam Cairns/USA Today)
To put things into perspective, the Ohio State game is often considered the more civil and respectful of Michigan’s two major rivalries. The rivalry with Michigan State is supposed to be the nastiest, and it has certainly lived up to that reputation in recent years. A common theme is that when something controversial happens (the sign-stealing scandal or last year’s incident with Michigan State in the stadium tunnel), the rivalry adds fuel to the flames.
Media coverage is part of that, no doubt. In the days of Bo Schembechler and Woody Hayes, scandals appeared in the morning newspaper and the evening news. They are now replayed minute by minute on social media, with each update drawing fans deeper into the drama.
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Some players, like Michigan quarterback JJ McCarthy, avoided social media altogether. A few others probably took a look. It’s hard to believe that any player on either team wasn’t aware of the anger building on both sides.
Both teams have contributed to this over the years. Harbaugh’s “being on third base” comment after Michigan’s 2021 win isn’t the meanest thing anyone has said about Day (he’s probably not in the top 500), but it wasn’t exactly polite. Day’s apocryphal comment about hanging 100 points on Michigan didn’t help the tone of the rivalry either.
Neither coach had much to say last week when asked about the level of respect between the two coaching staffs. Nobody needs a bunch of empty platitudes, but the players on each side at least acknowledged their respect for the players wearing the other uniform.
Despite all the noise and drama surrounding the rivalry, The Game itself is still pretty good. The 110,000 fans who attended Saturday’s game will remember it for the rest of their lives, as will the millions who watched it at home on television, including one particular television viewer.
“I understand the attention,” Harbaugh said. “Me not being there was a big problem. I want to take my time to recognize what our team really accomplished a couple of days ago. Maybe they will get the credit they deserve.”
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Michigan players have had a lot of criticism over the last month. Maybe too much. To endure all that and win one of the biggest games in program history was an impressive feat.
What was at stake in Saturday’s game was part of what made it special, and traditionalists are right to worry that the matchup will lose some of its luster next year. Saturday’s win wouldn’t be as momentous if the Wolverines were preparing for a rematch against Ohio State instead of a date with Iowa in the conference championship game.
I doubt Day or anyone at Ohio State will find comfort in thinking about the CFP expanding or the end of the Big Ten East. No matter what is at stake, rivalry is always going to matter. Starting next season, The Game might seem a little more like a game and less of a matter of life and death.
Maybe that’s not so bad.
(Top photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
