there is no doubt Ohio St and Michigan both have massive fan bases that stretch the nation. their regular season match up was the only regular season college football game to make the list of the top 100 most watched tv programs in the US. The other 4 college games in the top 100 most watched tv programs were playoff/bowls; UGA-OSU semis, Michigan-TCU semis, UGA-BAMA title game (from the 2021 season but played in calendar year 2022), and OSU-Utah Rose Bowl (same situation as UGA-BAMA).
So to recap....OSU involved in 3 of the most watched CFB in all of tv and Michigan involved in 2. That's why the B1G tv contract is so fkn fat. They have the big brands that bring the eye balls. Which is why if I had to guess they probably want ND desperately. Only team out there to potentially grab that brings eye balls at super high clip.