Michigan football star tries to dismiss Ohio State's national title

Sure, the Buckeyes won the national championship, but since they didn't beat Michigan, does it really count?

Michigan's four-game win streak over Ohio State looms large over the Buckeyes, even if they did win the national championship. | Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images

There’s a belief around Ohio State and Michigan that a football season’s success is determined by whether or not you beat your arch-rival, and a loss in The Game could even take some of the shine off a national championship winning season.

And despite the Buckeyes winning the most recent national title, they also have a four-game losing streak to that team up north, something that Michigan defensive end Derrick Moore made sure to remind that team down south recently.

“I’ll congratulate them on the win, but you know it’s not a real win if y’all ain’t beat us,” Moore said of Ohio State, at the Big Ten Media Days.

“I’m gonna congratulate them on their win, but this year, it’s gonna be different.”

Moore naturally admitted that he was hoping Ohio State would lose the national championship game, but had to concede that the Buckeyes did technically deserve it.

With a caveat, of course.

“If the playoff [expansion] wasn’t around, they wouldn’t have won the national championship,” he had to add.

He may have a point. If the College Football Playoff had not expanded to 12 teams, then Ohio State’s ability to make a hypothetical final four would be hotly contested.

Oregon and Georgia would have secured the top two spots, as Big Ten and SEC champions, respectively, and 11-1 Notre Dame would likely take a third.

From there, the committee would be faced with a Texas team that lost the SEC title game to the Bulldogs, but beat Michigan head to head, which Ohio State didn’t, and Penn State, which lost to Ohio State head to head and lost the Big Ten title game to the Ducks.

All of that is academic, because the College Football Playoff did expand to 12 teams.

And the Buckeyes made the most of it, mounting a dominant postseason run by outscoring opponents 145 to 75, winning by an average of 36 to 18, beating two SEC teams, one of which was the league’s runner-up, the undefeated No. 1 seed and defending Big Ten champion, and a talented Irish team.

Still, Moore believes Michigan played an outsized role in helping inspire the Buckeyes, a point that even former OSU coach Urban Meyer has conceded.

“We look at it like, ‘Y’all had a nice run, but we helped y’all along the way. We helped y’all build back up,’” Moore said.

“After that game, they dominated everybody that came in front of them. So I’ve got to give all the credit to them.”

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