Five Reasons Ohio State Fans Should Cheer for Michigan This Year

ESPN so aptly described our feelings for each other in a series of commercials which is why this article may seem like shouting into the wind but I maintain this has value so I encourage you to read on and see if there isn’t some merit to this argument. (Note, this article is intended for the more intelligent of the Buckeye faithful. I’m just assuming right out of the gate that the backwoods, mullet-sporting redneck who named his
eldest son Herbstreit and his daughter Ihatemaize is not going to get past the title. To be fair, this article will also seem reprehensible to the psychotic Wolverines who name their children Shembechler and
Deathtuohessyu.)

Considering Michigan’s 2008 season, I’ve gathered a vast array of mixed viewpoints from both sides of the Toledo War and I’ve come up with what I believe are five solid (and mildly overlapping) reasons why tOSU fans should push in favor of Michigan for their own benefit (until somewhere around the middle of November, that is):

Scientists work tirelessly to keep the BCS computer online.

1. Strength of Schedule: We all know that a stupid computer is involved in choosing who goes where at the end of the year and that’s pretty much about as dumb as sports gets. Year in and year out following massive upsets in college football you’ll hear the words uttered, “That’s why they play the game”, stating obviously that the team who wins on paper is not always the team who wins on Saturday. Yet somehow, a computer spits out a piece of paper stating who deserves to play in the most important game(s) of the year. So what’s the solution? Play by the computer’s rules. To do that, you need to have a strong schedule and right now the Big Ten is NOT playing that role for any of us. If you think defeats over Iowa and New Mexico State at the end of your season are going to push you towards a national championship, you better think again. You’ll recall that when Michigan and Ohio State played a couple of years back as #1 and #2, people were still questioning whether or not tOSU deserved to play in the National Championship. A defeat over a losing Michigan squad is not going to get you where you want to be. As iron sharpens iron, so we make each other better.

The Greatest Sports Rivalry of All Time

2. Rivalry: This one is pretty simple. No matter who you talk to, the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry is an international phenomenon and in my beliefs the greatest in all of sport. This isn’t professional rivalry with two teams of paid players taking the field and trying to defeat another team because the fans don’t like each other and all they’re really concerned with is grabbing their check at the end of the game and hopping back into their ridiculously over-priced SUVs and going home. These are two teams who post signs in locker rooms and weight rooms reminding each other that the countdown is on until the next time they stand on a battlefield, helmet to helmet and play for the right to be the victor that year.The last 25 years has,  unfortunately, been rather lopsided in the battle. Obviously, the past 8 years have been heavily weighted in favor of the Scarlet and Gray. In the 16 years before that, Ohio State only managed 3 victories. The ebb and
flow of this rivalry has been off for too long and the rivalry means nothing if we’re not playing real games against strong teams. The 42-7 victory may have been enjoyable in the moment but it’s a hollow victory considering who ELSE beat Michigan last year. The 2006 victory, 42-39 and right down to the wire: that is what this rivalry is all about. Push for the return of that team.

The Big Ten Conference needs to dominate outside of the conference.

3. The Big Ten: It’s frustrating that the SEC pulls down more powerful recruits than the Big Ten does but the fact is, they have more dominant teams. The reason their teams are considered more dominant and therefore more lucrative by players is that they dominate inside and outside of conference. The Big Ten does not. That has to change and the only way to do that is by having the teams that should be relied upon playing at their highest level. A solid Michigan team, in and out of conference, is a stronger Big Ten. A strong Big Ten means better recruits, better games, better competition. This year, when USC dares to step off the bus in Columbus, I hope tOSU gives them a beating that makes them wish they never showed up in the first place. When the imbeciles from Notre Dame step off their short bus in Ann Arbor, I would hope you’d do the same. Cheer for Michigan to beat them so bad the Notre Dame alumni get Charlie Weis fired right there on the spot before he’s even left town. If there’s only one or two dominant teams in the Big Ten who proceed to get slaughtered every time they go out of conference, we might enjoy playing each other but everyone else thinks we’re a joke.

The thrill of victory. The..well, you know the rest.

4. Pride: How much fun is it to make fun of a team when their down? How much fun is it when the only response to “You guys suck!” is “Yeah, we pretty much do.” Tell me that doesn’t take the wind out of your sails. This might overlap with my points on rivalry but how much joy can you really take from a relatively hollow victory? Everyone expected you to win that game. WE expected you to win that game. Don’t get me wrong, we WANTED to win that game but we had no belief whatsoever that we were going to. How much pride can you take in that victory? I’m not trying to put anyone’s efforts down but honestly, as a Michigan fan, I want Michigan to BEAT Ohio State. I don’t want Ohio State to beat themselves and we just happened to be on the field at the time. That’s not a proud victory. You don’t walk out of the stadium that day with the same pump in your blood from taking on a formidable opponent and besting them. That’s where the pride is.

USC Fans after a trip to the 'shoe?

5. We hate everyone else more: Again, this might have a touch of overlap to previous points but when a season is all wrapped up, if you think I’d rather have Florida beat Ohio State, think again. When one of us is bad, we all suck by association. I might despise everything that is Buckeye but I think we can all respect that, while we may dislike one another, we respect each other’s passion for football. Who of us recall the article some USC-loving sports writer put out earlier this year mocking OSU for having such a high turnout at their spring game while excusing the poor support of the USC fans since people in Southern California have better things to do? There are many things we have in common that, on occasion, bind us together as fans and teams rather than push us apart. We may not like each other, but we hate everyone else more.

Tim Tebow's last encounter with The Michigan Wolverines

So in conclusion, I encourage you to look this over, ponder it and see if there isn’t some merit. We won’t know what’s going to happen until the season starts but I do wish everyone a great season (Buckeye fans, that wish expires November 20th, by the way). Most importantly, let’s hope all of our teams and players have a healthy season, stay free from injury and let’s get reclaim what rightly belongs to us: The greatest rivalry in all of sports.

*Disclaimer: The opinions of Jon (Wolverine Correspondent) are strictly his and do not in any way reflect the thoughts or viewpoints of the purveyor of BucksInsider.com. In other words, if you want to complain about something said here, complain to the author and not the website management.