Ohio State identifies Michigan as 'The Team Up North' on national champions shirt

The Ohio State Buckeyes won their first national championship since the 2014 season, beating Notre Dame 34-23. With that, they get to celebrate and put out a new round of merchandise to sell to fans of the team. That includes a t-shirt listing the schedule and results from the season.

There’s just one notable catch on the shirts. Instead of listing Michigan for the final game of the regular season, those shirts just have “TTUN,” which, of course, stands for That Team Up North, a reference to their rival, the Michigan Wolverines, without saying their name itself.

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You can view how Ohio State is listing its schedule and Michigan on a national champions t-shirt, here:

Ohio State National Champs Schedule T lists Michigan as “TTUN” — The Team Up North. pic.twitter.com/Lfy66TEYfT

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) January 21, 2025

TTUN is nothing new. Part of The Game and the rivalry from Ohio State’s side is to cut out the use of the letter M during game week and avoid actually calling Michigan by its name.

In recent seasons, Michigan has posed a major problem for Ohio State. This year, even while the Wolverines struggled on offense and finished with an 8-5 record, they once again beat the Buckeyes. That’s noted by the 10-13 record listed on the shirt. That made for four straight losses in The Game for Ohio State and led to some concern about the future for Ryan Day as the head coach at Ohio State.

The Game, ultimately, became a sort of lightning rod for the Buckeyes to rally around going into the College Football Playoff. There, they went on a dominant run to the National Championship Game where Ohio State took care of business against Notre Dame.

For ESPN’s Paul Finebaum, going on that Playoff run was massive for Day. It even, according to the pundit, vindicated Day as the head coach at Ohio State.

“He has been fully vindicated. Yes, Michigan is important. Losing four in a row, but winning the national championship trumps everything in the poker game of college football and today he stands on the top of it,” Finebaum said. “It was a remarkable run. The fact that he did not have to play in a conference championship may have been the key. It gave him time to decompress, to talk to his team, to get over that Michigan loss, to get on one of the most incredible runs we have ever seen.”

The national championship can be vindication for Ryan Day. However, he’d also love to snap the losing streak to Michigan next season when the Buckeyes travel to Ann Arbor.