Michigan Basketball and Ohio State only faced off once this year but head coaches for both programs believe they should play twice each season moving forward. Should Michigan vs Ohio State be a protected Big Ten rivalry? Vote in this edition of SB Nation Reacts.
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With the additions of Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and USC to the Big Ten, scheduling has become trickier for college basketball.
The 18-team Big Ten conference schedule features 20 games — teams play seven teams once at home and seven others once on the road while playing three others both home and away. Michigan has one protected rivalry on its schedule that ensures Michigan and Michigan State play twice each year. However, Michigan vs Ohio State is not a protected rivalry and the programs played just once this year, an 86-83 Michigan win over OSU in Columbus.
Michigan head coach Dusty May would prefer the 2024-25 season be the last one where Michigan and Ohio State play just once.
“It’s what’s good for the sport. It’s what’s good for our players,” May said last week. “It’s less travel. It’s big for TV. It’s big for our fan bases. We both agreed that even though it might not be as fun, it’s a gut-wrenching preparation and anticipation for the game because of how much it means, but we both agreed that going forward we’d like for that to happen. I don’t know if we can do a quick flip next year, but we both requested that from the league.”
Ohio State head coach Jake Diebler had similar comments as May’s about the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry and wants the rivalry protected.
“I love being a part of this game, so much so that I was asking anybody that would listen to make this a doubleheader every single year,” Diebler said. “I know there’s a lot that goes into that, but I think our fans deserve that. Both schools deserve that.”
That leads us to the question this week, should Michigan Basketball vs Ohio State be a protected Big Ten rivalry? Vote below.