College Football Off-Field Matchups Week 13
The Iron Bowl was first played all the way back in 1893
(image from About Town)
2 Ohio State at 3 Michigan at 12:00
What ESPN once ranked as the greatest rivalry in all of North American sports headlines rivalry week, with the stakes as drastic as one could imagine. On the field, both teams are undefeated, and ranked 2 nd and 3rd in the country. Both are poised to enter the College Football Playoff and compete for a national title, with each other directly in the way of those hopes. The teams first met in 1897, uninterrupted up until 2020 (COVID). With all the stakes on the line, the drama-filled Michigan sign-stealing scandal serves as another layer of theater for arguably the biggest game of the year across college football. Michigan Head Coach Jim Harbaugh is suspended, Michigan’s Linebackers Coach fired for destruction of evidence, and almost weekly a new layer is unveiled in the drama. Many in Michigan’s camp speculate that archrival Ohio State is responsible for the private investigation that blew this story up in the first place, providing even more hostility in the already tense rivalry. Off the field, these two programs are two of the most important in the country in terms of economic impact. Ohio State educates over 68,000 students annually, employs 7,800 faculty members and over 41,000 staff and student employees, and has an operating budget of $7.9 billion. Through it’s people and their activities, Ohio State contributes more than $19 billion annually to the state's economy and supports nearly 117,000 jobs. (OSU.EDU) Both side’s athletic programs are raking in the dollars, with “Michigan’s athletics department reporting a $17.1 million surplus for FY2022 behind $210.6 million in operating revenue — a record for the school’s athletic programs. Rival Ohio State University saw its athletic department generate a record $251.6 million in revenue between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022, up from $107 million for the fiscal year prior.” (Front Office Sports) . When you pit these two behemoths against each other in the biggest game of the year, it leads to one of the most important economic drivers on and off the field across all of college athletics.
11 Oregon State at 6 Oregon at 8:30
The “Civil War”, played since 1894, features two top 15 teams, with Oregon vying for a Pac12 championship birth and an argument for the College Football Playoff. The Beaver State schools have been in the Pac-12 together since 1964, but this year will mark the end of that run with Oregon leaving for the Big Ten, chasing greener grass and an opportunity to partake in the Big Ten’s $7 billion media deal. Meanwhile, Oregon State has been one of the few schools left out in conference musical chairs, being one of only two schools remaining committed to the Pac-12 in 2024. Many believe the Pac-12 will completely cease to exist following this year, but the latest reports suggest that Washington State and Oregon State plan to keep it alive as a two-team conference for the time being, in talks with the Mountain West Conference to fill out their schedules. Since Oregon is leaving their in-state foe behind, the “Civil War” is in jeopardy, but both schools are working to keep the rivalry alive in 2024, with Oregon hoping to reschedule their battle with Boise State next year. The state of Oregon may even implore using it’s legal hand to keep the matchup going, as “the series not only guarantees a sell out for the home team, but also fosters economic and intangible benefits to the state. Oregon State, for example, recently asked the state legislature for $30 million in additional funding to help with the expected revenue shortfall caused by the Pac-12’s implosion.” –(JohnCanzano.com). If the schools can’t put together a deal to keep the matchup alive on their own accord, some sort of legislation from the state of Oregon is plausible due to the major economic boost the rivalry brings the state. Rivalries like this are not only important on the field, but they also are crucial in driving economic growth in communities and state-wide.
8 Alabama at Auburn at 3:30
Possibly the most intense interstate rivalry and most important, the Iron Bowl returns this week. First played in 1893, Alabama vs Auburn is one of the most historically significant rivalries in college football. The contest was played in Birmingham, Alabama for years, which was a leading city in the south in the production of steel and iron, leading to the name “Iron Bowl” to represent the rivalry. While this year only Alabama is coming into the matchup ranked, this game often has significant championship implications, leading to the rivalry building over the years into a cultural moment for the SEC, the state of Alabama, and the south as whole. In 2021, an astounding 80% of TV’s in Birmingham were tuned into the Iron Bowl, showing the SEC’s catch-phrase “It Just Means More” carries weight. Football isn’t just entertainment in the south, it is fundamentally intertwined in the culture of it, and the Iron Bowl is the culmination and proudest example of that. Even though it’s now one of the most established annual rivalries, the resentment between the schools actually led to a 40-year hiatus. They first played each other in 1893 but discontinued in 1907 due to conflict on nearly everything involved with the game, from referees, to travel expenses, to ticket sales, and everything in between. It took an act of state legislation to make the two play each other again. Still bitter, the two schools still refused to play each other, and only met again on the gridiron in 1948 after the state of Alabama threatened to pull state funding from both schools. The schools began their home and home series in 1989 after Auburn felt the neutral site of Birmingham was too skewed towards Alabama. History proves Auburn vs Alabama to be one of the tensest rivalries across all of sports, dividing a state’s population between War Eagle and the Tide, and the 88th matchup will likely be no different.