How Ohio State’s national championship affects the Michigan rivalry

The book on Ohio State’s 2024 season is closed, culminating in a 34-23 victory over Notre Dame for the program’s first national title since 2014.

Any other year, the Buckeyes’ story would have been over on Nov. 30, when Ryan Day and his team fumbled away an opportunity to exorcise their Michigan demons, losing at home as 20 ½-point favorites.

Sixth-year safety Quinten Johnson, the only player on the Wolverines’ roster who had ever lost to OSU, said entering the game the team was going to embrace the villain role.

It did. Michigan’s defense bullied the Buckeyes in the trenches and smothered them in the secondary, while a sputtering offense showed its mettle on its final drive, running the ball on 10 straight plays before kicking a go-ahead 21-yard field goal with 45 seconds left.

A talented OSU senior class, of whom many decided to forego the draft after last season for another crack at a title, finished their careers 0-4 against the Wolverines and watched (and reacted) as they planted a block “M” flag at midfield. Before the game, OSU fans heckled the maize and blue villains persistently.

When the clock hit zero, the Wolverines waived goodbye to a sea of red in the stands as boos and chants of “(expletive) Ryan Day” reverberated through Ohio Stadium.

But thanks to the expanded 12-team playoff, the Buckeyes were able to add a redemption chapter to their story and were wearing a national champion cape at the end.

In the history of the college football, no team has faced a tougher path to the championship. OSU fell to No. 8 in the CFP bracket after losing to Michigan but outscored its four postseason opponents – No. 9 Tennessee, No. 1 Oregon, No. 5 Texas and No. 7 Notre Dame – by a combined score of 145-75.

“The story gets to get told now, and it’s a great story about a bunch of guys who have just overcome some really tough situations,” Day told ESPN on the field right after the game. “There’s a point where there’s a lot of people that counted us out, and we just kept swinging and kept fighting. It’s the reason why you get into coaching is to see guys overcome things, learn life lessons, and then reach their dreams. This is what happened tonight.”

Day was in the toughest situation of anyone in the program. Jim Harbaugh lost his first five meetings against the Buckeyes, and even as frustrations mounted from the Michigan fanbase that was yearning to stop an eight-game skid in the rivalry, the former Michigan quarterback never faced the scrutiny Day was under after losing this year’s game.

OSU administration stood by Day immediately after the loss, and he rewarded them with a title. Athletic director Ross Bjork knew the Buckeyes would still reach the expanded CFP this season and wanted to present a united front before the team began its playoff journey.

Perhaps Day wouldn’t have kept his job if it weren’t for the 12-team field. Or perhaps, if the expanded playoff was instituted earlier, he would have gotten a rematch against Michigan in the postseason.

The previous three meetings all were top-five matchups, with the loser likely earning a playoff spot as well.

Michigan went 15-0 during its national title run in 2023, which included an interception from Ohio native Rod Moore to stamp a Michigan 30-24 victory in Ann Arbor.

Whose title is more impressive surely will be debated between fanbases for years to come. The Wolverines didn’t face the same gauntlet of a schedule as OSU did this year but only three of their games were decided by one score.

The Buckeyes (14-2) beat six teams this season that finished inside the Associated Press Top 25, including a revenge game against the Ducks, but they did lose to an unranked Michigan team without star cornerback Will Johnson and tight end Colston Loveland and with a former walk-on at quarterback.

After the loss, according to The Athletic, the Day family hired around-the-clock security at their house after receiving threats.

The morning after the game, I was eating breakfast at my hotel near Columbus and overheard an OSU fan lambasting Day and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly for their game plan against the Wolverines. He said he wouldn’t be as excited if the Buckeyes went on to win it all.

The emotions of the loss were still fresh, and surely fans can revel in a national title no matter the path. But the 2024 season is now over, and the countdown is officially on for the 2025 showdown in Ann Arbor.

The result of the Nov. 30 game might have fueled Buckeyes’ national title run, but it also generated a wave of momentum for Michigan. Sherrone Moore’s program followed with another upset over Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl and signed its first top-10 recruiting class since 2019, highlighted by five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood.

Even before this year’s matchup, Day told a local TV station that losing to Michigan was one of the worst things that has happened in his life. The rivalry is historically known for both programs being consumed by each other 365 days a year.

The primary critique of the expanded CFP was it would devalue regular-season matchups. The Buckeyes wouldn’t have been at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta celebrating Monday night if it wasn’t for the new format.

But considering the postgame fracas and the emotion on both sides of the rivalry after the upset, it’s hard not to envision the rivalry cooling off anytime soon. Day will still be facing pressure to beat Michigan and avoid falling to 1-5 in the series, while Moore will be looking to lead the Wolverines back to the CFP after finishing 8-5 this season, especially with a more favorable schedule in 2025.

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