Ohio State head football coach Ryan Day was willing to play a game of “what if,” as in, what if you could move the date of the biggest game every year against rival Michigan?
The question has been raised at Big Ten Media Days in Indianapolis because the Buckeyes and Wolverines play at the end of the regular season, and the league championship game is a week later.
With the Big Ten going to a no-division format in a 16-team league starting in 2024 with the inclusion of new members Southern Cal and UCLA, there’s the possibility that Michigan and Ohio State would be playing in back-to-back weeks.
“It’s worth a long discussion about where (in the regular-season schedule) that game should be played,” Day said Wednesday. “I think if it was the same way as it was this past year; we’d be playing back-to-back games and, who knows, we would maybe be playing again in the playoff. I think that that needs to be taken into consideration. Not that we should move it, but it’s worth talking about.”
Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh, however, wasn’t playing the “what-if” game.
“I don’t have a particular opinion on when it should be played,” Harbaugh said Thursday. “Right now, it’s been played that last game of the season, and I think everybody is used to that. It’s part of the Thanksgiving tradition, so that’s when we’ll expect it.”
Day sees the rivalry game — one of the biggest in college football and arguably in all of sports — as potentially being diminished if the teams were playing a week later.
“The game could not have an impact on a whole bunch in terms of if both teams are in the Big Ten Championship Game already, then could it minimize the game?” Day said. “That’s my concern. Even if you play it Week 11 or Week 10, no matter what, it’s going to matter.”
Perennial national powers, the Buckeyes and Wolverines have mattered most in the conference’s football history, with the teams combining to win the past six Big Ten titles. Overall, Michigan has 44, Ohio State 39 and Minnesota a distant third with 18.
Michigan standout running back Blake Corum believes the game will always be “The Game” to the teams and their fans. Corum said he doesn’t have a preference but likes the current schedule.
He’s also not concerned about having to play the Buckeyes more than once or twice a season.
“It might get the fans going even more like, ‘What, we get to play again?'” Corum said. “Kind of like last year when there was a chance we could play again (in the College Football Playoff). I don’t think it takes anything away from the game.”
Michigan hosts Ohio State on Saturday, Nov. 25, in Ann Arbor, Mich.
–Field Level Media
