The final home game on the schedule for every college football program in the country has always served as an opportunity for programs to honor the seniors on the roster. For Ohio State this season, honoring its seniors ahead of the Buckeyes' home finale against Michigan is apparently just too tall an order.
Ohio State recently announced that it will be moving its Senior Day to Week 1 when Ball State comes to town on Sept. 5. In other words, instead of honoring its seniors ahead of the biggest rivalry in all of college football, Ohio State is opting to do so ahead of what may be the least-anticipated matchup on its schedule.
Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day admitted that rivalry week for the Michigan game simply has too many distractions, and moving Senior Day festivities removes one of them.
"When we look at all the things that go on that (rivalry) weekend, the way things have changed, there are some things that we thought about," Day shared with the media, according to the Delaware Gazette. "The first thing was, we want to keep much of the focus on The Game, and the more distractions we have — there’s already enough distractions during that week — so this was just one more thing that we felt like we could move."
MICHIGAN'S NEW HEAD COACH POURS COLD WATER ON OHIO STATE RIVALRY: 'HATE IS A STRONG WORD'
Day went on to explain that he and the staff addressed the seniors on the team with the idea, and they collectively agreed that moving Senior Day to Week 1 was a great idea.
THESE ONCE-ANNUAL COLLEGE RIVALRIES USED TO DEFINE COLLEGE FOOTBALL AND NEED TO MAKE A COMEBACK ASAP
In the grand scheme of things, the only people who truly care about Senior Day and the traditions that come along with it are the seniors themselves and the family members in attendance. Moving Senior Day doesn't really matter, but it's impossible to ignore that Ohio State is already discussing "distractions" surrounding The Game against Michigan weeks before the newest season has even kicked off.
Ohio State ended its four-game losing streak to the Wolverines a season ago with a 27-9 victory in Ann Arbor, and the Buckeyes are clearly and publicly pulling out all the stops to pick up their first win against Michigan in Columbus for the first time since 2018.
Maybe Ohio State begins a new Senior Day trend, seeing as how the final week of the regular season is rivalry week for many teams around college football. Then again, keeping a semblance of tradition in a sport that feels to be in a state of constant change would be refreshing.
