Ticket prices? Kickoff time? Date on the schedule? Uniforms? No title sponsor? We discussed them all with Ohio State AD Gene Smith. Which detail around the Ohio State-Michigan game matters to you most? Vote in our poll.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Against another opponent, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith might be concerned about the crowd at Ohio Stadium on Saturday.
"It's Thanksgiving, it's going to be cold, we've favored by 20 points, if it's any other game, I'm worried about attendance," Smith said this week. "But I'm not worried about that for this weekend."
That's because this weekend is Michigan, and the 111th matchup in the history of the rivalry. You go back that far, you kind of get locked into this thing.
• Read every game story in Ohio State-Michigan history
The Game is about legendary players and legendary coaches, championships and upsets, legacies made and hopes dashed. But there are some little things around it, too, that help fans and those involved stay connected to the history of The Game, even as college football marches into the future.
That's one of the reasons, at least for now, that there still isn't a title sponsor for this game. Here are a few details about Ohio State-Michigan that may or may not change in the future.
Check them out, then vote on which ones matters to you most.
• Naming rights: As we detailed in Tuesday's story, the schools agreed to a title sponsor in 2004 then backed out of it the next day.
"Obviously, we've been approached before," said Smith, who has been asked about title sponsorships since he came to Ohio State in 2005. "I've never really taken that anywhere. We were approached three or four years ago. I shut that down before we even got started."
Percentage chance of change next 10 years: 80 percent. The questions will keep getting asked, and the guess is that the schools will eventually settle on a somewhat dignified corporation that will throw its name on the game for a pretty penny without asking for too much else in return.
• Why doesn't Ohio State-Michigan have a title sponsor?
• Uniforms: The Buckeyes and Wolverines both feature iconic looks. But Ohio State has already given into progress here. The Buckeyes first wore alternate Nike uniforms against Michigan in 2009, and by now fans are accustomed to Ohio State trotting out a new look a couple times a season, especially against its rivals.
Smith said he always talks with people in the Ohio State community and athletic department, like Alumni Association CEO and two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin, about moves like this.
Nike gave the Pro Combat alternate look to several teams it outfits and Smith said he agreed to it for two reasons: the players like it, and recruiting.
"One is how how our current players feel about that uniform and how does it make them feel psychologically to be able to put those uniforms on?" Smith said.
He remembers when he was an assistant coach in 1977 at Notre Dame, his alma mater, and the Fighting Irish unveiled green uniforms against USC.
"The excitement and joy was unreal," Smith said. "I'll never forget how players feel when they have something new and different to wear."
The other point is recruiting.
'We don't want to be a school that is constantly changing its uniform," Smith said. "But we have a platform like The Game, and we can have a uniform that we know the world is watching and we can have something that our players feel good about and probably our recruits are going to see and it's really cool and slick, and we're going to take advantage of that."
Percent chance of change the next 10 years: 100 percent. The Buckeyes won't ever wear purple, but they've shown they'll go with the trend on this. That trend will change, and so will how the Buckeyes look in The Game.
Ohio State hosted Michigan at 3:30 p.m. in 2006, which meant it was dark by the time the game was over. Could The Game ever kick off in primetime?Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer
• Kickoff time: The question is whether the Buckeyes and Wolverines will ever move to primetime. Typically, as this chart from ElevenWarriors.com shows, the game has been in early afternoon, most often at noon in recent years.
The move to 3:30 p.m. for the No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown in 2006 was a concession. Smith said he is approached about the kickoff time every year, and only in 2006 has he agreed to late afternoon.
"I have not been asked to play it at night," Smith said. "But if I was, it would be very difficult to think I would agree to do that, primarily because of the time of year."
The Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn is in primetime on Saturday for the first time since 2007 and no one seems to mind. The Buckeyes already played Illinois at 8 p.m. in November this season, when fans braved the chill for no apparent reason. This would at least still be The Game.
Percent chance of change the next 10 years: 50 percent. Smith and former Michigan AD Dave Brandon were pretty adamant about not going to primetime in recent years. But TV will eventually ask, maybe when Michigan gets good enough for both teams to be in the top 10. And it may be hard to say no, regardless of how cold fans might be.
• Date: The idea of moving The Game to the middle of the season was broached when the teams were in opposite divisions during the Leaders and Legends days (remember them?), when it was possible that they could have rematched in the Big Ten Championship the next week.
Ohio State-Michigan is played the last week of the regular season in late November, which is why Jim Tressel had to wear gloves in 2010. It's hard to imagine playing it at a different point in the schedule.Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer
But the schools fought to stay at the end of the season then, and in three years the teams never met in Indianapolis. Now they are back together in the Big Ten East.
"We felt like The Game was so big, and this is frankly selfish for us, but by keeping it at the end of the season, it puts our institutions on a pedestal," Smith said. "You're building up to it. If you put it in the middle of the schedule, it would still be The Game because they're our rival, but it loses some of the luster of the buildup.
"So we made a decision that part of it is tradition and history, but part of it is a real branding issue for our institutions. That Saturday is rivalry weekend, and we're going to be right in the middle of things and people are going to watch it. I don't know how long they'll watch it, but I know they're going to turn it on at the beginning."
Percent chance of change the next 10 years: 5 percent. Once a major issue, now that the teams are in the same division, it's no issue. The only change would come with another realignment as part of further Big Ten expansion. But even if that happens, everyone should be able to keep Ohio State-Michigan at the end of the year.
• Network: The game is on ABC this year. Could it ever move to the Big Ten Network? Smith compared the potential change to how people used to worry about staying on a major network like ABC instead of a cable network like ESPN, and now no one really cares about that anymore.
"I would always want to align ourselves with the premium brand, but keep in mind that the Big Ten Network continues to grow and reach more eyeballs," Smith said. "So I can't say never. I would say where we are now, in the next couple years, we'll always lean to ABC. But I can't say that three or four years from now. By then, BTN might be international, you never know."
Percent chance of change the next 10 years: 75 percent. A decade from now, you may watch The Game on a chip implanted in your eye. But the cable model could change, which could mean the Big Ten Network could change. The conference has to keep its TV partners happy because they pay big money for the product. But the idea of the Big Ten getting a premier game like this on its own network at least a time or two in the next decade? Not hard to imagine.
• Ticket price: Ohio State, like many schools, adopted a somewhat tiered ticket pricing in recent years, with five of the home games costing $79 this season, Virginia Tech costing $110 and Michigan $150.
The Wolverines will always cost more now. Smith said the games against the Hokies and Wolverines sold out the most quickly, in part because some buyers know they can resell them.
"That's just the way things are now," Smith said.
He said he'll probably check some resale websites on Thursday to see how much seats are going for, and he'll note the sections and be able to tell whether its faculty and staff or long-time season ticket holders or donors who are selling the seats. He said the OSU ticket office will likely look up the actual ticket holders who are advertising their tickets.
But that's what a ticket holder can do.
"They have that right; they have that right," Smith said.
Percent chance of change the next 10 years: 100 percent. If the tickets really reflected the market, the Michigan game would be $400 and the Kent State game would be $25.
Ohio State and other schools are watching. They know what fans want. And with a game like The Game, you have to think they'll continue to adapt to that.
