Who Really Runs the Big Ten: Ohio State or Michigan?

College Football: Who Really Runs the Big Ten: Ohio State or Michigan?

Updated Jul. 25, 2025, 10:44 p.m. ET

RJ Young – FOX Sports National College Football Analyst

Ohio State claims to run the Big Ten — or do they? The Buckeyes are eager to make it clear: they’re not defending anything. They’re pursuing everything, and that everything surely includes a showdown with Michigan. Ohio State players will face off against Michigan players on November 30, 2024, at Ohio Stadium. (Photo by Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

This mindset resonates with most competitors. It’s all about creating a quiet space, blocking out the noise from the outside, securing what’s theirs, and gearing up for what lies ahead rather than what’s already happened. However, that approach doesn’t quite apply to defending national champions, especially when they haven’t triumphed over their arch-rival since 2019 and haven’t captured the league championship in a conference they claim to dominate since 2020.

Michigan — Ohio State’s eternal rival — has won three of the last four Big Ten titles and secured the 2023 national championship. The Wolverines have watched an entire class of Buckeyes go winless against a program they derogatorily refer to as “That Team Up North.” The best way to approach conversations where key points need to be made is to sharpen the truth, particularly when directed at a rival, and that’s exactly what Michigan defensive end Derrick Moore did recently when he was asked about Ohio State’s most recent national title.

“First, I’d like to congratulate them on the win,” Moore stated. “But you know it’s not a real win if y’all [Ohio State] haven’t beaten us.”

Moore further elaborated, citing the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff format and how the Buckeyes would have fared had it not been for the expanded playoff. “If the playoff expansion wasn’t around, they wouldn’t have won the national championship. who has the most belts in boxing So we pretty much look at it like, y’all had a nice, little, easy run. But we helped y’all along the way. We pretty much helped y’all build back up. But after that, they dominated everybody that came in front of them, so I’ve got to give all the credit to them.”

Ahem: Where’s the lie? Ohio State, as the No. 8 seed, likely would have been excluded from a four-team playoff. That loss to an unranked, seven-win Michigan team would have likely closed the door on any reasonable discussion about including the Buckeyes, especially among rational fans and, crucially, a rational selection committee. Derrick Moore #8 of the Michigan Wolverines executes a play during the fourth quarter of a game against Ohio State. (Photo by Ben Jackson/Getty Images)

Let’s not forget: Michigan ran the table in 2023. fiba philippines vs dominican republic The Wolverines triumphed over Ohio State even without their head coach on the sidelines, outperformed their rivals in the Big Ten title game, and overcame Nick Saban’s Alabama and Kalen DeBoer’s Washington teams to capture the title. riyad master While not all national champions are the same, the 2023 Michigan team resembles 2018 Clemson, whereas 2024 Ohio State shares similarities with 2007 LSU.

Winning a national title is one thing, but beating your rival holds equal weight, and that rivalry has been longstanding. For a while, we looked forward to rivalry games since it wasn’t too long ago that we counted votes to determine the national champion. No one was truly playing for a title as much as they were fighting for the right to say, “I beat you Okebet Sports.”

That’s the essence of Ohio State vs. Michigan. It encapsulates eight consecutive losses between 2012 to 2021, Urban Meyer’s perfect record against Michigan, and Ryan Day knowing that those four defeats to the Wolverines might hold more significance for OSU fans than his single national championship.

It’s also about crossing out all words that begin with the letter “M” during the week leading up to The Game. It’s about scores like 62-39 (2018), 56-27 (2019) for Ohio State, followed by 42-27 (2021) and 45-23 (2022) for Michigan. It’s about Michigan going from a laughingstock in 2020 to proclaiming, “We Own You” in 2024.

It’s reasonable to consider that how you win can be as significant as the victory itself, especially given the Midwest’s emphasis on fair play and taking the tough route because it’s the right thing to do. This brings us to a familiar defense where Ohio State might genuinely question Michigan: “didn’t they cheat?”

Here’s what we know: The NCAA started an investigation early in the 2023 season due to allegations that Michigan employed an extensive in-person scouting and sign-stealing operation. The Wolverines faced a penalty in the same season they won the national title, as the Big Ten suspended Jim Harbaugh for the final three regular-season games after its investigation concluded that Michigan had breached conference sportsmanship policies through an impermissible scouting operation.

Just two months ago, reports emerged that Michigan suggested suspending current coach Sherrone Moore for the third and fourth games of the 2025 season for deleting a thread of text messages as the scandal unfolded. Last week, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti reportedly sent a letter to the NCAA Committee on Infractions recommending that Michigan’s football program should not face further sanctions tied to the sign-stealing scheme.

What irritates many is not that Michigan wasn’t penalized but that the consequences weren’t severe enough. microgaming casinos After all, Ohio State likely lost a chance to compete for the 2012 national championship due to a bowl ban imposed after a 12-0 season because players sold memorabilia. These practices now seem trivial.

If these incidents hadn’t occurred, the question would remain: who truly runs the Big Ten? In a season where the conference has the potential to clinch a third national title in as many years in the CFP era, and in a league that Michigan helped establish in 1896, which now includes four programs in their second year as members, the consistent excellence of Penn State and the resurgence of Indiana sets the stage for the two best programs in the conference over the last five decades to face each other.

On November 29 at the Big House in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the past two national champions will clash, and we’ll gaze at the scoreboard to determine who really rules this league and possibly the sport. What are your thoughts on which team has the upper hand?