The Ohio State Buckeyes' annual rivalry game, simply known as "The Game" to the initiated, may abandon history once the CFP moves to 24 teams. With momentum towards the playoff field doubling, everyone is scrambling to figure out where regular-season finale rivalry games fit into the picture. Or if they do at all.
MLive's Ryan Zuke believes the game doesn't need to be played one or two weeks ahead of the start of the CFP, when neither team may be willing to risk injuries to major players before the postseason. Zuke proposed moving it to mid-October during the "Wolverine Confidential" podcast.
“Traditions are dead in college football,” Zuke said. “If you’re a purist, I’m sorry, but it feels like nothing’s even the same as, like,10 years ago....It would bring more juice to the rivalry, and the stakes would be higher."
Unfortunately, it's hard to even argue with this point. With an expanded CFP, one that potentially even eliminates conference championship games, the more important games happen earlier in the season. October action would be electric in that scenario.
It's not ideal, but so much is changing so quickly at this point in time, in just about every aspect of life, that keeping "The Game" and adjusting when it's played just to still feel something may be the best we're going to get.
The pursuit of profits is too rapid-fire to hope things stay the same. Certainly, there's no going back to the way things used to be.
Big non-conference games have to be the way of the future in college football
What the Ohio State University is not doing in this new era is messing around and leaving money on the table early in the season, like the Indiana Hoosiers did last year playing the Old Dominion Monarchs -- a good opponent but one that doesn't pull fans in or even come off as a threat on paper --, the Kennesaw State Owls, and the Indiana State Sycamores. The Buckeyes are taking on all comers, including finishing the Texas Longhorns home-and-home this September in Austin and starting a new one with the Alabama Crimson Tide next fall, and another one with the Georgia Bulldogs in 2030.
If you're going to take away tradition, the new thing better be exciting, too. Ohio State's fanbase will indulge in massive excitement in September for the foreseeable future with unbelievable non-conference games.
In a 24-team CFP reality, the cupcakes need to be at the end of the season. November needs to be a mild cool-down period, which could actually result in more major upsets, since the playoff teams may have their second- and third-stringers in those games.
It really was all so simple once upon a time, but that American collegiate athletics system can't exist anymore in the age of profits-first, people-last. What comes next could work if the right adjustments are made.
Unfortunately, that means being forced to accept "The Game" in October. The hate won't go away even on the new date. At least there's that.
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