Ohio State Athletic Director Undermines Importance Of Michigan Rivalry With Comments Sure To Anger Buckeyes

Ohio State and Michigan is the most famous rivalry in college football, if not all of sports. It is up there with Red Sox/Yankees, Duke/UNC, Real Madrid/Barcelona, Army/Navy, Bears/Packers, and Auburn/Alabama. It might be greater than all of the others.

Each and every year, regardless of records, regardless of the weather, and regardless of whatever else is going on in the world, the Wolverines and the Buckeyes are going to grind it out for 60 minutes. Seniors want to go out on a high note, freshman want to set the tone to start their college careers.

For players, coaches, and fans, the cross-state rivalry is not necessarily everything, but it's pretty damn close. Many of them, if not most or all of them, would rather lose every single game in the season if it meant that Ohio State would beat Michigan, or vice versa.

Urban Meyer hired a full-time coach to focus on the Wolverines year-round. Recruits at both schools start beefing before they ever get to campus.

There is almost no way to sell the rivalry short. It is as great as they come.

And yet, somehow, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith found a way to sell the rivalry short.

The Buckeyes have lost each of their last two games against "the team up north." Smith doesn't understand why that is such a big deal, considering how good they have been outside of that game.

He recently shared his thoughts during a recent a conversation on Eleven Warriors' Real Pod Wednesdays podcast. They are sure to ruffle some feathers.

Ohio State AD Gene Smith said WHAT?!

Smith was trying to make the point that Ohio State is focused on winning national championships, not singularly on beating Michigan. His intended message was fair, but his delivery led to a different sentiment amongst the folks in Columbus.


It's so funny, everybody's so focused on just one game. We were basically one point away from being in the national championship game, and I think had we got that two points we needed to convert and ultimately played TCU – I feel confident we would have performed well and won a national championship – I'm not so sure about all this chatter.

Smith's point is well taken. What he was trying to say makes sense.

Essentially, who cares if the Buckeyes beat the Wolverines if they win the national championship?

The answer is a lot of people. Smith didn't stop there.


I haven't really talked specifically about Michigan. We have a lot of other games before we get to them. So right now, you're focused more on developing your roster and developing your team
The 'team up north' game won't matter a whole lot if we go over and not do what we're supposed to do . So we got to take care of business there.

Again the first half of his answer to a question about scouting for the 2023 season is totally fair. It is June, and the focus is on winning in Week 1.

However, for Smith to say, that "the 'team up north' game won't matter a whole lot" in any context is not going to go over well with the Ohio State fanbase. That rivalry — The Game — will always matter, and it will always matter a lot.