Kirk Herbstreit addresses possibility of moving Ohio State-Michigan game

Recently, the Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day made waves when he addressed their annual end of the season matchup against Michigan. To some, like ESPN’s Pat McAfee, the Buckeyes headman was none too pleased about playing the Wolverines at the end of the season.

However, that is not the case, and it couldn’t be any further from the truth in the eyes of former Ohio State quarterback and one of the faces of college football game day at ESPN Kirk Herbstreit. Recently, as it gets on The Pat McAfee Show, the college football expert provided some insight into what Day meant in his comments.

“I think all he said was it’s worth a discussion on whether that should still be the game at the end of the year because of no longer having divisions,” said Herbstreit. “There’s a pretty good chance that Ohio State-Michigan could play last game of the year, a week later in Indy at the Big Ten Championship. And I think he wanted to just bring it up. Is it worth a discussion?”

“I think he loves it having it because of the tradition of it at the end of the year. But does it take anything away from it? Imagine playing that game at the end of the year. Somebody wins, somebody loses; next week, you play it again. It’s just our new world that we’re in. It’s a little strange. I think he wanted to just bring it up; is it worth having a discussion?”

With the Big Ten doing away with divisions as the conference expands, their approach is that the two top teams will play for the conference title. More times than not, Ohio State and Michigan are at the top of the Big Ten. But they have never played one another before the conference crown, as they are both representatives of the east division.

The Ohio State-Michigan game is arguably the biggest rivalry in college football, and oftentimes, when they play, it has major implications for the national title picture. But with the Big Ten set to do away with divisions, that could take some of the oomph out of that game. And that is what Herbstreit believes Day was alluding to when he made his previous comments.

With Herbstreit trying to set the record straight for Day, will this conversation become a topic to discuss as the ESPN analyst believes it is? A change of that nature would have major implications for the Big Ten and college football as a whole.