This upcoming college football season, the Big Ten is moving into a brand new seven-year, $7 billion multimedia rights agreement with FOX, CBS, and NBC. And while that new agreement includes more night games for Big Ten teams in the fall and changes to the Big Ten schedule, it does not sound like any schedule changes will be coming to the annual Ohio State vs. Michigan showdown anytime soon.
Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel recently revealed that he and Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith have discussed the kickoff time and date of the highly-anticipated annual showdown between the Buckeyes and the Wolverines, but The Game will continue to kick off on the Saturday after Thanksgiving at noon.
“Gene and I have had great conversations about both topics (the kickoff time and date of game), and ‘The Game’ will remain at noon in the regular season when we play,” Manuel said this week on Michigan’s ‘Conqu’ring Heroes‘ podcast, as transcribed by MLive. “We have had great fan enjoyment of that game being at noon; great television response in terms of numbers of people who watch that game.
“I think there’s no need to move it to any other time; it’s really become part of that series.”
Manuel revealed that there was at least some conversation about the date of The Game.
With the addition of USC and UCLA to the conference in 2024, the Big Ten will be eliminating its divisions, instead pitting the top two teams in the overall conference standings against each other in the Big Ten Championship game. This means that if Ohio State and Michigan finish with the two best records in the conference, they would immediately meet again in the Big Ten Championship game the week after their regular season meeting.
If this ever happens, Manuel said he would “look forward” to playing Ohio State again.
“That’s where Gene and I have had some conversation,” Manuel said. “And my reaction is, if we’re fortunate enough to do that, I look forward to playing them again a week later. That brings out the excitement of college football.”
Manuel does not think the possibility of playing twice in a season would diminish the importance of the rivalry. Instead, he sees it as simply a symptom of the changing college football landscape.
“That’s part of the evolution (of college sports),” Manuel said. “Whenever Michigan and Ohio State can play each other in football, whether that’s the last game of the season and there’s another championship game where we play each other, there will be tremendous excitement by our fanbases, by our teams, and by the nation.
“My attitude is, as long as we get there, whoever we play is whoever we play. But it would be tremendous to play them again.”
