Thursday, August 26, 2010

Michigan-Ohio State: Tinkering with a Classic

College football will do just about anything to make even more money, including destroy the Michigan-Ohio state end-of-the-season rivalry game. With two divisions and a championship game likely in the Big Ten, Jim Litke of AP reflects on the unappealing future of the big game:

The most likely realignment scenario involves putting the historic rivals in different divisions, then having them play in the middle of the regular season rather than at the end. That way, if they meet in the championship game, it won't feel as much like a rematch.

Never mind that few championship games are as memorable as even the clunkers Michigan and Ohio State have played over the years. When pressed, most coaches would concede they view championship games as necessary evils; they're the price a team pays so that its conference keeps a seat at the table for the Bowl Championship Series postseason galas.

But no one ever looked at Michigan-Ohio State that way. The lore that grew up around the game was testimony to that. Play it twice a year, even if the second time is for the league championship, and plenty of the air leaks out of both




2 comments:

  1. Gone are the days of Woody Hayes toilet paper and chanting through the streets of Ann Arbor "oh how I hate Ohio State!" What's wrong with these people?

    ReplyDelete

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