Smith said Ohio State-Michigan could be played on the last weekend regardless of the division breakdown.
What OSU president Gordon Gee said about the rivalry today
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith told The Plain Dealer this afternoon that he has received about 350 e-mails from fans on the issue of the Ohio State-Michigan game, around 90 percent of them expressing the desire for the Buckeyes and Wolverines to continue to play to end the regular season.
Smith said the issue of scheduling has been discussed very little by Big Ten athletic directors, who so far have been trying to nail down the division breakdown and talking about the idea of expanding to nine conference games instead of eight. Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez has said publicly that expansion to nine games will happen in 2015.
Smith said there was an all-day meeting in Chicago for the ADs this Monday, with a conference call scheduled for next week. He believes the divisions will be finalized soon, and then the talk will turn to scheduling. And whether the Buckeyes and Wolverines are in separate divisions or the same division, which Smith wouldn't divulge, he thinks they can play to end the regular season.
Ohio State AD Gene Smith"I think in the division or out of the division, you could play the last game," Smith said. "There are obviously warts with both of those. But there's no doubt you could do it both ways."
And Smith said he knew the idea of keeping that game to end the regular season was an important one as soon as expansion was approved and before the e-mails rolled in.
"I always knew it was an issue," Smith said. "I've always had my reasons, but I'm getting additional reasons. ... Honestly, there are people who are emotional and you know, they're not giving me anything different. They're telling me what I already know. I really appreciate the information from the people who are obviously being thoughtful and are giving me good information. ... I've gotten models, I've gotten historical data, I've gotten a lot of stuff that makes sense."
Smith said he also sought out the advice of some former players and plans to talk to some current players before the final meetings on the issue are held.
I mentioned two specific and potentially contradictory points to Smith:
* That moving the rivalry to earlier in the season just to accommodate a potential Ohio State-Michigan championship game that probably wouldn't happen more than once every four years doesn't seem to be worth the payoff.
* That splitting the top four teams - Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska and Penn State - makes sense, and it might be reasonable that Penn State would rather be with Ohio State or Michigan than a potential rival so far west.
"That's what we'll do in the room," Smith said, meaning all topics like these will be broached. "All the possibilities that every fan has mentioned or anyone has talked about are alive. ... No decisions have been made."