College football rivalries are serious business, and one of the most intense is the one that exists between Ohio State and Michigan. It burns with such passion that Ohio State refuses to acknowledge Michigan by name (instead of going by “the school up north”) and seems to put more priority on beating the Wolverines than winning the Big Ten conference championship or a national title.
We got a taste of that this season when the Buckeyes lost to Michigan for the fourth year in a row and then watched as the Wolverines planted a flag at mid-field of Ohio Stadium to ignite a brawl.
It put head coach Ryan Day on the hot seat (at least in the eyes of fans) and led to immense criticism despite the Buckeyes’ promising chances for a national title.
Former Alabama coach Nick Saban, who knows a thing or two about playing fierce rivalry games, having spent so many years in the Iron Bowl, thinks that mindset is “psychotic” and that Ohio State fans need to get some therapy for it.
Saban made the comments ripping Ohio State fans during his appearance on “The Pac McAfee Show” on Friday.
“These Ohio State fans, they’ve got a psychotic obsession with Michigan, and they need to get therapy or something to get it fixed. Ohio State has a chance to win the national championship, and here you are — nobody’s excited about their opportunity to play because they lost to Michigan. It was a tough game; they lost the game with some of the mistakes they made, so those are correctable things.”
It might be harsh, and there might be some hyperbole in there, but Saban is not really wrong about the focus of Ohio State fans and how much Michigan dictates their feeling toward coaches and the program as a whole.
Losing to Michigan this season was tough, especially at home and given how big of a step backward the Wolverines took this season. It is not what anybody wanted, and it did have real consequences by knocking Ohio State out of a potential bye week in the College Football Playoff.
But the Buckeyes still got to play a home game against Tennessee, which it easily won.
They are still in the quarterfinals with a chance to get a rematch against an Oregon team they nearly beat on the road earlier this season.
They are still within striking distance of a national championship.
All of that is more important than any one single rivalry game. No matter how big of a deal the rivalry is.
