Why Michigan-Ohio State should move to October if the Playoff expands to 24 teams

The Michigan-Ohio State game is as much a part of the college football schedule in late November as Thanksgiving leftovers and Lane Kiffin coaching rumors.

The match was scheduled to start at noon under a slate gray sky, with a few snowflakes in the air and fans huddled in the stands. To play rivalry at any other time would be an affront to all that is good and holy. However, if the people running the sport insist on breaking a 24-team College Football Playoff, then Michigan and Ohio State need to put tradition aside and think about what’s best for the rivalry.

If the CFP expands, Michigan and Ohio State would have to move The Game to October.

I realize this proposal will be hugely unpopular with fans. You know what else is wildly unpopular with fans? The CFP with 24 teams. Allow me to explain why my unpopular idea is a good idea. I also love the Michigan-Ohio State game exactly as it is, but I worry that the greatness of The Game will be lost if it is played after most of the 24-team Playoff field is set.

The goal should be to play The Game when the stakes are highest. For most of the rivalry’s history, this meant playing on the last Saturday of the regular season. Part of the greatness of the rivalry is watching the tension build throughout the season, leading up to the crescendo in late November.

If the CFP expands, my prediction is that the peak of the regular season will hit sooner. Probably sometime in October, when we’ve seen enough to know who’s good, but not enough to figure out the entire CFP group. The final Saturday of the regular season will feel more like Week 18 in the NFL – extremely relevant for a few teams, anticlimactic for everyone else.

Everyone has something to play for in October. The teams are warmed up, but not as beat up as they were in late November. We’ll know enough to identify the key games, but no one will be locked into a particular CFP path. Furthermore, fans won’t experience Bracket Fatigue if they analyze the same handful of scenarios over and over again.

Last year’s Michigan-Ohio State game offered a glimpse of what we can expect when the CFP expands to 24 teams. The Wolverines were a ticking time bomb of dysfunction, but they still would have been a Playoff lock even after failing to score a touchdown against Ohio State. The game will always matter, but to assume it will be just as good without postseason positions on the line ignores what makes this rivalry different from any other.

If The AthleticsJoe Rexrode pointed out that the national stakes helped create the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry as we know it today. It was Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler battling for the Rose Bowl year after year in the 1970s, the Game of the Century in 2006 and the top five matchups in 2016 and 2023 that made the rivalry what it is.

An unfortunate side effect of the expanded CFP is that the better these teams are, the less incentive they will have to risk everything in the final week of the regular season. If both teams are high in the rankings and assured of a bye in the first round, what is really at stake, other than the pride of beating your rival?

To be clear, I’m not concerned about Michigan or Ohio State resting healthy starters for The Game. That will never happen. Would Jordan Marshall and Jeremiah Smith play through injuries if both teams were guaranteed to play in the CFP? That’s harder to answer, though I suspect players would do whatever they can to play.

My biggest concern is that Michigan-Ohio State won’t feel that big. The games that matter at the end of November will be the ones involving teams on the fringes of the CFP. That could be a good thing for USC-UCLA, Iowa-Nebraska, Illinois-Northwestern and other Big Ten rivalry games that tend to get buried in the final weekend of the regular season. It’s not a good thing for Ohio State-Michigan.

That’s the problem for the Big Ten. The 18 conference schools play 81 games against each other each season. If an expanded CFP makes the other 80 games more meaningful, it would be a win for the Big Ten — and also for Fox Sports, which televises some of those games. That extra juice has to come from somewhere, and the risk is that it comes at the expense of the Big Ten’s most valuable asset: the Michigan-Ohio rivalry.

I know some people think those concerns are overblown. One of those people is Ohio State coach Ryan Day, who said the expanded Playoff could make Ohio State-Michigan “even more important.”

“You play for a chance to reach the Playoff, or for a chance to be seeded high to get a bye in the first round,” Day said. The Athletics. “Or, if you’re already predicted to be among the top eight schools, then you’re fighting for a high spot. So those are all critical to your Playoff success.

“I think with the elimination of the championship match, the rivalry remains as fierce as ever before, and the stakes remain just as high.”

From Day’s perspective – and Kyle Whittingham’s as well – lowering the rivalry pressure wouldn’t be the worst thing. You could say it has already happened. The 12-team CFP made it possible for the Buckeyes to lose to Michigan in 2024 and then win a national championship. If The Game no longer defines the season for both teams, it’s worth at least considering the argument for playing it a few weeks early.

Falling leaves or dry branches? Halloween candy or pumpkin pie? Sweaters or winter coats? Going from one to the other would be a huge adjustment for Michigan and Ohio State, but as the rest of the sport changes, the rivalry should be open to change as well.

A Michigan-Ohio State game in mid-October will never mean as much as the epic rivalry games of the past, but it’s guaranteed to always mean something. Instead of deciding the season, it would set the stage for everything that comes next – including the possibility of a rematch in the CFP.

I don’t like it. I also don’t like the thought of Ohio State-Michigan gradually losing relevance now that the final weekend is all about the teams competing for the last few CFP spots.

Moving The Game would be an insult to everything fans know and love about college football. Since the people who run the sport have shown us that they’re okay with that, it’s an insult worth considering.