This weekend at Ohio Stadium there will be a lot of excitement in the air. The state of Ohio itself will be buzzing due to the intrastate football game between THE Ohio State Buckeyes and University the Cincinnati Bearcats. This game will feature a lot of storylines, and there will be a lot of in-state bragging rights for players’ sake and fans sake. I call it a fake rivalry, because on paper it’s really not a rivalry, but since both schools reside in the same state it sort of has to be a rivalry.
The Buckeyes are 13-2 lifetime against the Bearcats in football, and the Bearcats have not defeated the Bucks since 1897. The Buckeyes will look to keep the winning streak alive, and the Bearcats are seeking a big-time win for the football program. Being a University of Cincinnati grad, and being born and raised in Columbus, Ohio the correlation between both schools and cities are vastly different.
Bearcat fans are chomping at the bit to defeat the Buckeyes in football. In the late 2000’s the Bearcats scratched the surface under then head coach Brian Kelly as one of the up and coming programs in the country. In previous matchups the Bearcats have played OSU tough, but that is expected when inferiority plays a factor.
Many people in the Queen City felt that they had the best team in Ohio. At the time the Buckeyes were a national powerhouse under then head coach Jim Tressel, but many felt that there was a need for the programs to face each other more often since UC was on the rise. It obviously didn’t happen, and this Saturday will be the first matchup between the schools in eight years.
I am stuck in the middle, because I would love to see both schools to play yearly, but Ohio State has nothing to prove, and the Bearcats have everything to gain within the rivalry. Buckeye Head Coach Urban Meyer is a UC Grad, so maybe the outlook on playing UC will change. Meyer understands both sides, so maybe there will be some type of compromise in developing some type of game between the two schools on a recurring basis.
I think the game is good for the state of Ohio– players that weren’t recruited by OSU get to take a chance at beating the Buckeyes, and for OSU’s sake it’s another opportunity to bully the “little brother”, and also play and coach against coaches players that they have had past relationships with. This weekend could be a great start of something new, and I hope we don’t have to wait another eight years to see the schools play.
P.S. Go Bucks, let’s get to 3-1, and……thanks to UC for my degree so I can pay bills.
I’m out.
