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Ohio State football game with Michigan will be after Thanksgiving, starting in 2009

oldschooler

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oldschooler

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[quote][size=5][b]Ohio State football game with Michigan will be after Thanksgiving, starting in 2009 [/b][/size]
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Doug Lesmerises
Plain Dealer Reporter

The Ohio State-Michigan game is moving back on the calendar. Starting with Thanksgiving week 2009, the Big Ten Conference is choosing football over Butterball.

On Dec. 2, Big Ten school presidents voted to support a 13-week conference football schedule, pushing the final weekend of the season to after Thanksgiving, Big Ten spokesman Scott Chipman said Monday. That would allow teams one week off during the 12-game regular season. Since the NCAA adopted a 12-game schedule in 2006, many Big Ten coaches have been clamoring for a bye week to give coaches and players a mental and physical break instead of three straight months of football.

Other coaches, including Ohio State's Jim Tressel and retiring Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, staunchly supported the Big Ten tradition of ending the season before Thanksgiving, though no other conference in college football finishes as early. This season, 48 major college football games were played Thanksgiving week, in every conference but the Big Ten.

"I really like the fact our players and coaches can go home for Thanksgiving," Tressel said on Nov. 20, three days after the Michigan game and two days before Thanksgiving.

"We ask so much of these kids, to train all year long, and for them to get four days to just be kids with their parents, I put a lot of value on that," Tressel said

Yet even Tressel was interested in adding an off week. NCAA rules prevent conferences from starting the season any earlier, so this was the only solution. In the end, it was money that won out over tradition. Once the extra game was added, this move was inevitable. The 12th game allows most major schools an extra home game, and Ohio State turns a $4 million to $5 million profit off each game at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

The move to after Thanksgiving isn't unprecedented. Since President Franklin Roosevelt signed legislation in 1941 that officially decreed the fourth Thursday of November as Thanksgiving, the Ohio State-Michigan game has been played after Thanksgiving 16 times, but only four times in the past 29 years. The most recent was in 2001.

Chipman said teams may choose to move a game to after Thanksgiving next year if it is cleared through the Big Ten, but Ohio State won't be changing its schedule. Though conference schedules have been set through 2011, the presidents instructed the league office to start adjusting the schedules in 2009.

So two years from now, fans can sit down to watch the Buckeyes and Wolverines while munching on leftover turkey sandwiches.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

dlesmerises@plaind.com, 216-999-4479[/quote]


[url="http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/sports/119736599792430.xml&coll=2"]http://www.cleveland.com/sports/plaindeale....xml&coll=2[/url]
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claptonrocks Hall Of Fame

claptonrocks

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The wait between Michigan and a bowl game is much to long for OSU..
Id like to see them have a conference champiionship game as well.
Break it into two divisions and play for something..

Division One
Ohio State
Penn State
Indiana
Purdue
Illinois
Louisville ( would be added )

Division Two
Michigan
Michigan State
Iowa
Northwestern
Minnesota
Wisconsin
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Bengals1181 Hall Of Fame

Bengals1181

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[quote name='claptonrocks' post='608348' date='Dec 13 2007, 01:55 PM']The wait between Michigan and a bowl game is much to long for OSU..
Id like to see them have a conference champiionship game as well.
Break it into two divisions and play for something..

Division One
Ohio State
Penn State
Indiana
Purdue
Illinois
Louisville ( would be added )

Division Two
Michigan
Michigan State
Iowa
Northwestern
Minnesota
Wisconsin[/quote]


I still maintian that the layoff between the michigan game and a post-new year bowl game has no more effect than any other BCS school. Once you get past 4 weeks (which every school does), everyone's rusty. If anything, it should help the big 10 that they got more time to get guys healthy.
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claptonrocks

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[quote name='Bengals1181' post='608359' date='Dec 13 2007, 02:22 PM']I still maintian that the layoff between the michigan game and a post-new year bowl game has no more effect than any other BCS school. Once you get past 4 weeks (which every school does), everyone's rusty. If anything, it should help the big 10 that they got more time to get guys healthy.[/quote]

I still like the idea of two divisions and a championship game...
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