How The New Big Ten Conference Should Handle Michigan-Ohio State

Too good to be true.

Too much of a good thing.

Pick your idiom, because both relate to the sacrilegious notion of playing the Ohio State-Michigan game twice in a season. Other than the unlikely nature that both teams play in the national championship, “The Game” is meant to be played once a year.

Since the Big Ten (of 12) officially added Nebraska in June, the notion was that the conference would split in two divisions was a foregone conclusion. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany confirmed that on Monday. Delany also made it clear he wanted to preserve the conference’s rivalries as much as possible:

“Whether or not we’ll be 100 percent able to preserve every trophy game or every rivalry game, I’ll tell you we’ll go to great lengths to make sure that the tradition and rivalries are respected,” Delany said.

Delany also referenced Ohio State-Michigan many times in his press conference.

The easiest way to protect the sanctity of “The Game” would be to put Ohio State and Michigan in the same division, assuring them of playing each year. Furthermore, the annual rivalry game could still be played in the last week of the regular season since there would be no possibility of the two teams playing the next week in the Big Ten title game.

If the two teams were to be put in separate divisions, it’s highly likely the teams would still face each other year after year and probably still in the final game of the conference season. Yet, if Michigan and Ohio State were placed in separate divisions, it’s very probable that they could meet again in the Big Ten title game, perhaps as soon as the next week after their first meeting.

The whole season is built up until the clash of the Scarlet & Gray against the Maize and Blue in November. The players often say that while the game is undoubtedly full of its fair share of skirmishes and trash talking, the game itself is the cleanest and most well-played game of the year.

But doubling up on the rivalry crosses the line of “too good to be true” and “too much of a good thing.”

Let’s say the teams were placed in separate divisions and ended up meeting in the Big Ten title game the week after meeting the first time. The game would be disheveled and messy and the coaches and fans would be suffering from emotional burnout. The players would be suffering from emotional and physical burnout.

A game that has a spot in the Rose Bowl on the line shouldn’t feature exhausted players that aren’t capable of playing to their potential in the most important game of the year. Conference championship games are meant to bring out the best in the two best teams from each conference, and then give the players about a month to recharge before their bowl games.

Let’s face it, double-dipping is frowned upon, and nobody likes sloppy seconds.