FanPost

10 Years' War

Don't know how many of you have HBO, but if you do, I recommend you stop down and watch the documentary, "The Rivalry" about Michigan and Ohio State.

It's amazing how many parallels you can draw between Michigan/tOSU and TX/OU...

- Both rivalries are over 100 years old and feature teams from neighboring states that have a long history of political, social, and economic angst towards the other

- Royal vs. Wilkinson or Royal vs. Switzer are almost carbon copies of Hayes vs. Schembechler and Brown vs. Stoops is very similar to Carr vs. Cooper-Tressel

- I wonder if we'll ever look back and call the period from 1999 to 2009 the 10 Years' War between Brown and Stoops

- Ohio State fans are constantly complaining about Michigan stealing recruits from the state of Ohio just like Texas fans complain about OU cherry picking recruits from our state

- Schembechler accused Woody Hayes and vice versa of spying during the 1970's just like Royal accused Switzer (as far as I know, both were true)

- Both rivalries seem to go in streaks and each team brought in a new coach to turn the tide when the other team started winning too many in a row...Royal coached under Wilkonson just like Schembechler coached under Hayes

- Ohio State views Michigan as a bunch of pompous, sophisticates very similar to how OU fans view UT fans

- John Cooper was kind of the Mackovic of Ohio state, he didn't embrace the rivalry nor the fans

- The hatred between Michigan and Ohio State fans is very similar to that of Texas and OU fans, plus the jokes they tell about each other are almost identical as well...my favorite: "How do you get an Ohio State grad off your porch? Pay him for the pizza.

Overall, if I were to compare the rivalries on straight up intensity, as much as I love TX/OU and the fact they meet in the Cotton Bowl, I have to give the nod to Michigan/tOSU for three very important differences:

1) Michigan and Ohio almost went to war over the land on the 70-mile border that separates their state (it's called the Toledo Strip)...as far as I know, Texans have never fought Oklahomans. And when you start pulling guns on one and other, that's just a whole new level of animosity that we can't really identify with.  

2) The Big 10 Championship and trip to the Rose Bowl has often been dependent on the outcome of Michigan/tOSU game since the beginning of their rivalry. Confernce Championships and major bowl bids weren't largely dependent on the winner of TX/OU until 1996. Now that TX/OU does pretty much decide the Big XII Championship and BCS implications, we're getting there. But we just haven't had the same amount of heartaches.

3) I also think the fact that Mich/tOSU plays at the end of the season instead of in October like us puts more fuel on the fire. Just imagine if we were playing OU next week for the right to go to the Big XII Championship and beyond or spoil their chance of going to the title...we'd all be going nuts right now.

Still the things that make both rivalries great are very similar and I'd love to see the same guys do a documentary on TX/OU. It's very well done.

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