Ohio State Football: Why Playing Michigan Twice Would Be Bad for the Buckeyes

The Ohio State-Michigan rivalry is arguably the biggest rivalry in American sports. But this season poses one unprecedented question: What if the Buckeyes and Wolverines play twice in two weeks?

Both Urban Meyer and Brady Hoke were asked that question last week at Big Ten media days because the two teams meet at the end of the regular season in Ann Arbor and are likely favorites to win their respective divisions, meaning they would play in the Big Ten Championship Game the following week.

It's unprecedented and would be an intense two weeks for the two teams.

But is it too much to ask for two teams to get up for their archrival in consecutive weeks?

It's tough enough to try to win The Game and then get up the next week to play for, at the bare minimum, a Rose Bowl berth. To have a rematch almost seems barbaric, mainly for the winner.

Both OSU and Michigan have countdown clocks in their respective locker rooms counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until they meet once again.

The teams have specialty packages they draw up just for those games.

When you lose, it's a lot easier to gather up the energy to get revenge a week later than to wait a year for another shot. Too many things can happen in a year that can't in a week like roster turnover and coaching changes.

The Game is full of such raw emotion on both sides that whoever loses that game actually may have a mental edge in a rematch.

Big games in college football are emotionally charged as is. For an Ohio State team to go into Ann Arbor, win against the Wolverines on the road and then have to beat them again a week later is tough for any team to do.

The fact that the two teams are in different divisions to begin with is a whole different story, although the conference will rectify it next year when Maryland and Rutgers join the conference and the divisions reshuffle.

We still get one more shot at the Ohio State-Michigan championship game we all thought we would see at some point since 2011.

Yet neither team has made it to Indianapolis for various reasons.

Maybe that's why the Big Ten has been down with their best programs not being the best in the conference.

Seeing the two teams meet for a conference title would be a dream scenario for fans and students on both sides. For the players and coaches, it's something completely different.

As much as it would create a special chapter in The Game, Meyer probably wouldn't want to see Hoke's Wolverines in two straight weeks because of how nearly impossible it could be to sweep the series.

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