I think it would have to be moved to October, probably mid-month. Otherwise it's a disaster waiting to happen.
Michigan can play Sparty the week prior, and OSU can play Wisconsin.
Move UW and Minnie back to October like it should be.
I like the Axe game as a season ending game and this really wouldn't fix things.
I think the best teams (historically but about 20 years not 100+) need to not play each other in the last few weeks.
These are all opponent records but here are 2002-2021:
- #1 Ohio State .850
- #8 USC .720
- #9 Wisconsin .719
- #18 Iowa .660
- #19 Penn State .657
- #20 Michigan .655
- #29 Michigan State .610
- #38 Nebraska .571
- #53 Northwestern .528
- #57 Minnesota .524
- #58 UCLA .520
- #78 Maryland .475
- #81 Rutgers .451
- #86 Purdue .440
- #101 Indiana .370
- #108 Illinois .347
Maybe 20 years isn't quite enough but if we are scrapping divisions then Ohio State's final game opponent should be a team from the bottom half and, if possible, the bottom quarter so Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, or Rutgers.
There is actually some history with Illinois. Here is Ohio State's final regular season game as a progression starting when tOSU joined the league in 1913:
- Northwestern from 1913 until WWI
- Camp Sherman and Michigan during WWI
- Illinois 1919-1930
- Minnesota 1931
- Illinois 1932-1933
- Iowa 1934
- Michigan 1935-present
I would NOT want Purdue because they tend to upset the Buckeyes a LOT more than they "should" (should meaning statistically) anyway and if you stuck them in the week before the CG I would just expect that to get worse.
Indiana would be a border-state thing and by far the closest of the four geographically.
Rutgers would have the theoretical benefit (for the league in general and tOSU also) of putting a frequently highly ranked team in the nation's #1 media market in late November.
The problem is that Indiana, Purdue (each other), and Illinois (Northwestern) already have season-ending rivalries that DO NOT need to be broken up for CG reasons.
Thus, the most logical end of season games are probably:
- #1 tOSU VS #13 Rutgers
- #2 USC VS #11 UCLA
- #3 Wisconsin VS #10 Minnesota
- #4 Iowa VS #8 Nebraska
- #5 Penn State VS #12 Maryland
- #6 Michigan VS #7 Michigan State
- #9 Northwestern VS #16 Illinois
- #14 Purdue VS #15 Indiana