The Game: Michigan/Ohio State and Why Rivalries Matter

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where it’s out with 2022 and in with 2023 and our season eight premier. Rivalries in both sports and politics will be the focus of our next six months, and where better than to start but with college football’s premier conflict between the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines. With beginnings dating back to the virtually bloodless Toledo War, a territorially dispute in 1836-37, the football hostilities would begin at centuries end. Tune in this week, as we outline the narrative history of this uniquely competitive and impactful rivalry. From Michigan’s dominant early run, the arrival of coach Woody Hayes and the famous Ten Year War of 1969-78 featuring Hayes and then Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, the Wolverines turning the tide back under Lloyd Carr leading to an era of unprecedented Buckeye dominance in the 21st century with Jim Tressel and Urban Mayer, all the way to the present: with both teams featured in this week’s College Football Playoff and Michigan capturing consecutive victories for the first time in over twenty years under alum and prodigal son Jim Harbaugh. Michigan/Ohio State has long been one of the sport’s consequential regular season showdown and continues to frame the narrative of the national college football landscape. It may be a new year, a new Collective season, but Ohio State/Michigan remains the same: arguably the greatest rivalry in all of sports.