Last year confirmed what we already knew.
As Ohio State hoisted the national championship trophy, it cast a shadow over college football past. In the darkness lies what The Game once was.
When the sport entered the era of the 12-team playoff, winning The Game was abolished as a requisite for the most coveted of postseason aspirations. The Buckeyes didn’t even need to run through the expanded bracket to prove it — though they removed all doubt by doing so.
In last year’s postgame fight, Ohio State edge rusher Jack Sawyer chirped that the Michigan football team’s season was done and over. The Buckeyes, meanwhile, were among the first batch of two-loss teams allowed to compete for a national championship.
The Game is forever changed. Sawyer knew it then, and at this point, everyone else does too.
There is no going back — all there is to do is embrace modernity. The stakes will never be as high as they once were, but we must accept The Game for what it is. Because for all the faults of the new format, this year’s rendition is as meaningful as it can be.
“The page is completely turned (to next week),” Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said Saturday after beating Maryland. “I’ll probably watch this game on the plane or on the bus. … And by (athletic director Warde Manuel’s) discretion, I won’t be in the office tonight, maybe. But this is the most important game of the year.”
For Moore’s Wolverines, it’s obvious what’s to be won and lost come Saturday. Michigan is a high-upside, flawed team propped up by playoff expansion — the type of team that, by the standards over sport prior to 2024, would’ve been deemed irrelevant the moment it fell to Southern California over a month ago.
Instead, the Wolverines had six more weeks to keep playing meaningful football. They haven’t had to win games just for Moore to keep his job or to prepare freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood to win next season. They’ve had to win every game to keep their playoff hopes alive.
The expanded playoff keeps a larger pool, Michigan included, in contention. Maybe they don’t have more than an outside chance at winning a national championship or even making a semifinals appearance, but at least they’re motivated to try.
“This whole season, we’ve been preaching, ‘Peak at the perfect time,’ ” Underwood said. “And I feel like it’s coming along.”
Under the past format, nobody would’ve paid attention to Michigan if it started peaking after losing that second game. The Wolverines themselves might not have even cared enough to do so. In that reality, the blossoming connection between Underwood and freshman wide receiver Andrew Marsh would be heralded as the future and not the present.
When a team loses its hopes at the playoff, everything becomes geared toward next year, individually and as a team. Last season after the Wolverines dropped their third game, nobody expected cornerback Will Johnson to return to play meaningless football and risk further injury or draft stock.
Contrarily, in 2022, then-Michigan running back Blake Corum took the first snaps against Ohio State. It quickly became apparent that he wasn’t healthy enough to play, but he tried because The Game was worth it. That’ll be the case again this year. The Wolverines are in the same win-or-go-home situation — and The Game still matters.
For the programs and fans, the pride element will always make The Game relevant. But impacting the national scene is necessary for The Game’s prestige in the long run. Even with all its history, it needs Michigan and Ohio State to meet with something to gain and something to lose, other than bragging rights.
It won’t ever be that both teams have everything on the line — 2006, 2016 and 2023 will likely stand the test of time as the most meaningful games in recent history. Like last year, the Buckeyes only have the Big Ten Championship and a playoff bye to lose. They’re in an even better position than last year and nothing will keep them out of the postseason entirely. Only Michigan will be fighting for its season.
This is what the deciders of a 12-team playoff wanted, teams competing for seeding and others for life. They killed what The Game once was. There’s no choice to embrace what it is now. And in the new era, this year is as good as it gets.
