The 'Eyes have it

 Waiting for my order at a local pizza joint Friday night, and there was a woman wearing an Ohio State sweatshirt, so of course I had to say something. And, no, it wasn't a mean something like you all probably think.

"Your guys gonna win tomorrow?" is what I said.

She smiled.

"I hope so," she replied. "Four years in a row is just too much."

By which she meant, "Four years in a row losing to Michigan." Or maybe, "Four years in a a row losing to those turds from up north," relations between the Buckeyes and Wolverines being what they are.

Ohio State vs. Michigan has always be one of the marquee annual rivalry games in college football, even if during the Woody vs. Bo years it was also the most boring. It was Archie Griffin going off-tackle 4,000 times vs. Billy Taylor or Ed Shuttlesworth or Rob Lytle going off tackle 4,001 times, and the final score was always 12-10 or 13-12 or some other Novocaine number.

Still, the enmity kept you watching, because to someone with no dog in the hunt it was endlessly fascinating and a trifle amusing. After all, if you were an alum of one of those other Big Ten schools Bo and Woody routinely beat 69-7, you despised both of them. You regarded both as merely football factories masquerading as institutions of higher learning.

Unlike, you know, Northwestern. Or Purdue or IU or Wisconsin.

At any rate, the week leading up to Ohio State's 27-9 dismantling of the Wolverines in Ann Arbor yesterday was particularly entertaining.

Michigan fans kept saying Ohio State's 2024 national title was bogus on account of the Buckeyes lost to the Wolverines for the fourth straight time. Ohio State fans retaliated by saying, "Oh, yeah? Well, your 2023 title should have been voided because Jim Harbaugh was a (bleeping) cheater. Also, you've beaten us just seven times since the turn of the millennium, so shut the hell up."

The Michigan fans' insult was ridiculous because, by their logic, every national champion who's ever lost a regular season game is a fraud. And the Ohio State fans' retort is ridiculous because, if you voided every national champion who'd ever pulled a fast one -- fast ones much worse than spying on future opponents, in some cases -- "Void" would have more national titles than anyone.

Not that the Ohio State fans are caring much, this morning. The Buckeyes went to Ann Arbor, got down 6-0 early to the jacked Wolverines, and then methodically did what they've done to everyone in this 12-0 run of theirs: Beat them down with their endless supply of talent and depth.

Outscored the Wolverines 27-3 from that point on. Put a big smile on Ryan Day's face -- because Michigan fans spent the last four years laughing at him, and Ohio State fans, until last year's natty, spent the last four years saying he didn't know jack-all about football.

Well, Day and the 'Eyes have it now, at least for another year. So neener-neener-neener, Michigan. And you, too, Ohio State complainers.