{"id":3802,"date":"2025-11-24T06:49:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T06:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/11\/24\/embracing-what-the-game-is-now\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T06:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T06:49:08","slug":"embracing-what-the-game-is-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/11\/24\/embracing-what-the-game-is-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Embracing what The Game is now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Last year confirmed what we already knew.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As Ohio State hoisted the national championship trophy, it cast a shadow over college football past. In the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/sportsmonday-a-eulogy-for-the-game-as-we-knew-it\/\">darkness<\/a> lies what The Game once was.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019t even need to run through the expanded bracket to prove it \u2014 though they removed all doubt by doing so.<\/p>\n<p>In last year\u2019s postgame fight, Ohio State edge rusher Jack Sawyer chirped that the Michigan football team\u2019s season was done and over. The Buckeyes, meanwhile, were among the first batch of two-loss teams allowed to compete for a national championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The Game is forever changed. Sawyer knew it then, and at this point, everyone else does too.<\/p>\n<p>There is no going back \u2014 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\u2019s rendition is as meaningful as it can be.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe page is completely turned (to next week),\u201d Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said Saturday after beating Maryland. \u201cI\u2019ll probably watch this game on the plane or on the bus. \u2026 And by (athletic director Warde Manuel\u2019s) discretion, I won\u2019t be in the office tonight, maybe. But this is the most important game of the year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For Moore\u2019s Wolverines, it\u2019s obvious what\u2019s to be won and lost come Saturday. Michigan is a high-upside, flawed team propped up by playoff expansion \u2014 the type of team that, by the standards over sport prior to 2024, would\u2019ve been deemed irrelevant the moment it fell to Southern California over a month ago.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the Wolverines had six more weeks to keep playing meaningful football. They haven\u2019t had to win games just for Moore to keep his job or to prepare freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood to win next season. They\u2019ve had to win every game to keep their playoff hopes alive.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The expanded playoff keeps a larger pool, Michigan included, in contention. Maybe they don\u2019t have more than an outside chance at winning a national championship or even making a semifinals appearance, but at least they\u2019re motivated to try.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis whole season, we\u2019ve been preaching, \u2018Peak at the perfect time,\u2019 \u201d Underwood said. \u201cAnd I feel like it\u2019s coming along.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Under the past format, nobody would\u2019ve 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Contrarily, in 2022, then-Michigan running back Blake Corum took the first snaps against Ohio State. It quickly became apparent that he wasn\u2019t healthy enough to play, but he tried because The Game was worth it. That\u2019ll be the case again this year. The Wolverines are in the same win-or-go-home situation \u2014 and The Game still matters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-3{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-3{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>For the programs and fans, the pride element will always make The Game relevant. But impacting the national scene is necessary for The Game\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>It won\u2019t ever be that both teams have everything on the line \u2014 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\u2019re 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s no choice to embrace what it is now. And in the new era, this year is as good as it gets.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<div class=\"newspack-popup-container newspack-popup hidden  newspack-inline-popup      \" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" style=\"background-color:#FFFFFF;color:#000\" id=\"id_162162\" data-segments=\"\" data-frequency=\"0,0,0,month\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Please consider donating to The Michigan Daily<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last year confirmed what we already knew.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 When the sport entered the era of the 12-team playoff, winning The Game was abolished as a requisite for the most coveted of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[311,1036],"class_list":{"0":"post-3802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-embracing","9":"tag-game"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3804,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3802\/revisions\/3804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}