Rivalry week is always special in college football. Few deliver like this one did, and the chaos arrived not a moment too soon. Next year the spite will still be there for many games, but the last Saturday of the regular season will look slightly different. Oregon and Washington will play each other, and the Apple Cup will move to the beginning of the season. It’s unclear if Oregon and Oregon State will continue to play. Texas will likely be playing Texas A&M, a welcome return after a long hiatus.
Michigan and Ohio State will be playing, but will it have the same stakes? Will either reach The Game undefeated? Michigan plays Washington and Oregon, while Ohio State gets Oregon out of the newcomers next year. Much of the reason why Ohio State and Michigan reached Saturday’s matchup unbeaten is because of who they didn’t play when comparing this year’s Big Ten to its next iteration. The game was another epic in their series. It decided a division championship, and likely a College Football Playoff berth. The losing side has still made the CFP in the past, and it stands to reason that might be the case again in the new 12-team world next winter. Does that cheapen next year’s version? Of course not. It’ll still be as spiteful—there just may be different build up to it, no more or less awesome.
But after The Game was over, Saturday delivered a 30-minute window of time where we remembered just how good things can get at the highest levels of college football hatred, with Alabama winning their game at the buzzer on a Jalen Milroe prayer and Washington winning the Apple Cup with a trick play to extend a drive that ended with a go-ahead field goal on the game’s final play. The Iron Bowl isn’t going anywhere either, but perhaps it will have different stakes too in the changing SEC. Rivalry week as we knew it is ending. Like the rest of the sport, it will evolve with the times. See you next Thanksgiving weekend.
