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How Yahoo! Sports columnist Dan Wetzel would split the Big Ten into divisions:
“They build their seasons up to it,” said Michael Rosenberg, Detroit Free Press sports columnist and author NFL jerseyof “War As They Knew It,” a book about the 10 years of games between Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler.
Through it all, going onNFL jerseys 104 years, it’s become one ofNFL apparel the greatest rivalries cheap nfl jerseysnot only in college football, but also in all of American sports. While that’s a debatable title, there’s no question Michigan-Ohio nfl merchandiseState would be in the discussion.
It’s not nfl merchandisejust about who wins and who loses or what is won and what is lost. It’s a celebration of a culture, a day both look forward to and look back on, a feeling of time and place, of memoriessteelers jerseys and roots that run deep in the Midwest soil. You watchedsaints jersey with your grandfather. You’ll watch with your grandchildren. No matter when things are good or things are bad – and with both football jerseyfootball and the economy, these twofootball jerseys states have seen both – it nhl jerseyis always there, always the same.nhl jerseys To play in it is to play in something bigger than yourself, your team and even your school.
“A remarkable festival,” the announcer Keith Jackson nhl team jerseydescribed it on its hockey jersey100th birthday.
It’s special. It just is.
Big Ten commissioner nhl hockey jerseyJim Delany (left) deserves credit for landing Tom Osborne (right) and Nebraska – and scorn if Michigan and Ohio Statejersey devils end up in different divisions.M. Spencerpenguins jersey Green / AP
And now the Big Tenblackhawks jersey wants to pretend it isn’t?
They are going to move the game to October and they are going to split Michigan and Ohio State up and put them in opposite mlb jerseydivisions of the new 12-team Big Ten to allow for the possibility of a league title game rematch starting in 2011.
This hasn’t been announced. mlb jerseysIt’s all but certain though, the drumbeat of public relation leaks assuring it. Commissioner Jim Delany has talked about it. So toobaseball jersey has Ohio State coach Jim Tressel and Michigan athletic director David Brandon.
Theybaseball jerseys want the idea to float out there so it isn’t a shock to the system when it becomesmlb baseball jersey official next month. It may not shock, but it should sadden.

The likelihood NFL jerseyof a Michigan-Ohio State rematch isnNFL jerseys’t strong anyway (which the TV execs will realize upon research) and not just because the Wolverines went 1-7 in the league last year. NFL apparelDoug Lesmerises of the Cleveland Plaincheap nfl jerseys Dealer reports that had thenfl merchandise two teams been split into opposite divisions over the past 17 years, they’d have met just three or four times in a title game. This isn’t thenfl merchandise old days of the Big Two andsteelers jerseys Little Eight, and that’s before Nebraska makes it more competitive.
Lesmerises notes that only five times since 1988 have both teams been ranked in the top 15 on game day. While the 2006 game between No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Michigan springs to mind, the rivalry is mostly about one team trying to ruin the other’s big year.
It’s also a rivalrysaints jersey of swings. Bo and Woody mayfootball jersey have gone back and forth – Michigan holding a 5-4-1 lead in that era – but prior to the Buckeyes winning eight of the last nine games, football jerseysMichigan won 10 of 13.
That the game nhl jerseymaintained – if not increased its appeal – nhl jerseysduring these runs of dominance is a testament about how its value is in the total package. It’s about the people. It’s about the stadiums.nhl team jersey It’s about the circle of the calendar. It’s about the often gloomy weather that in its own Midwestern way is beautiful. It’s about all thehockey jersey intangibles that make this game and this sport so great, far greater than some financial metric can measure.
Once there is even the potential for more than one game, once it is moved to a midseason date, once it isn’t the final test, once it isn’t about clearing (or being) the last hurdle to a season, once it is staged in some faux-retro NFLnhl hockey jersey stadium, it becomes a jersey devilslittle more like just another game. This is what happened to the once-wonderful Oklahoma-Nebraska rivalry that in just more than apenguins jersey decade went fromblackhawks jersey special tomlb jersey likely extinct, one more bit of history sucked mlb jerseysfrom the sport in the name of a small pot of possible revenue.
“It’s always been aboutbaseball jersey the anticipation,” Rosenberg said of Michigan-Ohio State. “It was about working to that final game, about what’s at stake, baseball jerseyswinning a championship or screwing it up for the other guy. That’s what was always special about it.”
So special it camemlb baseball jersey to define the league. Patience created a brand so strong it could command high broadcast fees and launch its own television network phillies jerseyand draw in Nebraska and Penn State to the point where a title game is needed.
Now the suits are ready cardinals jerseyto think short-term and cash in on its appeal. Now it’s just another product to squeeze out $150,000 from.

Saunders wascardinals jersey questioned by NCAA investigators looking into possible rules violations at a party in Miami in May. Spurrier has saidphillies jersey Saunders told the coach he’d done nothing wrong.
“I said suspended mlb baseball jerseyfor violation of team rules. Team rules have nothing to do with the NCAA,” Spurrier said.
Saunders has not spoken publicly this summer. Spurrier said on his radio call-in show last week that he expected the baseball jerseysNCAA to have a ruling about thebaseball jersey tight end’s eligibility before the Gamecocks open the season against Southern Miss on Sept. 2.
The NCAA mlb jerseyshas investigated Alabama, North Carolina mlb jerseyand Georgia along with South Carolina concerning the South Beach gathering.
Saunders wasblackhawks jersey a highly touted prospect from Durham, N.C., who picked the Gamecocks and Spurrier’s pass-happy offense over Clemson, Florida penguins jerseyState and North Carolina among others. He showed signs last fall of becoming a main target for South Carolina, catching 32 passes for 353 yards and three touchdowns.
Saunders entered the summer as the backup to 6-foot-1 senior Patrick DiMarco. However, Spurrier has praised Saunders’ jersey devilsconditioning and practice habits for much of preseason camp. He had four catches for 63 yards in last Saturday’s scrimmage, including a 10-yard TD pass from Stephen Garcia.
Saunders was among 31 players on the watch list for the Mackey Award, given the to the country’s top tight end, nhl hockey jerseyand could be a high-round pick in next spring’s NFL draft.
But the suspension putshockey jersey Saunders’ spot in the lineup in doubt and takes away one of the few experienced pass catchers for fourth-year passer Garcia.nhl team jersey South Carolina’s three expected starting wide receivers—Alshon Jeffery, Tori Gurley and D.L. Moore—are sophomores. The other tight nhl jerseysends on South Carolina’s roster had a combined nhl jersey16 receptions last season.nhl jersey
Spurrierfootball jerseys wouldn’t say when or if Saunders would befootball jersey reinstated.
“His status will be saints jerseydetermined at a later date,”steelers jerseys Spurrier said. “Now how elsenfl merchandise can I say that?”
Without nfl merchandiseSaunders, the Gamecocks will use reserves Justice cheap nfl jerseysCunningham and Mike Triglia during workouts. DiMarco has been slowed during camp with a cracked bone in his left fNFL apparelorearm.

Ohio State and phillies jerseyphillies jerseyMichigan should be placed in the same division and meet in the final game of the regular season. It works for cardinals jerseyAuburn-Alabama, Texas-Texas A&M and a host of other great rivalries that have survived the super conference era. baseball jerseyIt’s a nod to the concept that thesemlb jerseys are more than just games, that theymlb jersey aren’t just a product to package for television, blackhawks jerseythat in college football, tradition should be honored, not reworked in the hope of a ratings bump.
“Onepenguins jersey of the best things that could happen, jersey devilsin my opinion in nhl hockey jerseya given season, would be the opportunity to play Ohio State twice,” Brandon told Ann Arbor radio station WTKA.
No, it wouldn’t be the best thing that could happen. It might be fun the first time. It might be unique. It might be new. And then soon enough, it wouldn’t be.
Everything else about it diminishes an event built and maintained for five generations. When you control a 100-plus-year-old tradition, you don’t make decisions based on a four-year television contract. To do so is symbolic of the NCAA run by MBAs, where a projected spreadsheet means more than a history hockey jerseybook. It is about selling out a century plus for an overnight rating and then trying to explain it away with specious and short-sitednhl team jersey reasoning.
The game is the game because they don’t play twice a year. You get one crack and that’s it. It can make or break thenhl jerseys season. Careers, both playing and coaching, are defined by it because the lack of a rematch raises the stakes. The single game increases the nhl jerseyurgency of the present. football jerseysThen the location on hallowed grounds – either the glorious Horseshoe or the brilliant Big House, not some corporate event at Lucas Oil Stadiumfootball jersey – adds the perspective of the past. As such, the nature of the rivalry should be protected at all costs.
Instead, not only does the Big Ten want to split the teams up to assure a potential second game, but it also wants to move saints jerseythe annual clash to steelers jerseysmidseason in case both teams win their division. Otherwise there might be back-to-back meetings that could cost the title game broadcast casual viewers. This is the butchering of the regular season in an effort to nfl merchandiseprotect the postseason.
There is no other reason to do it. It isn’t for competitive reasons, since it actually stacks the deck against Michigannfl merchandise and Ohio State – their cross-overcheap nfl jerseys opponent is a historicNFL apparel powerhouse.
The Big Ten title game is undoubtedly worth more if Ohio State and Michigan, two big brands with plenty of big television markets, can potentially meet. Nebraska may teem with history, but it doesn’t with people (just NFL jerseys1.7 million residents compared to the 10 million-plus of bothNFL jersey Michigan and Ohio).