What Good Is A Rival, Anyway?

A lament for Ohio State-Michigan, a thing that doesn't matter but does.

What good is an enemy at a time like this?

I’ve been pretty open about the discomfort I’ve felt throughout this year’s star-crossed attempt to stage a college football season. While the season has persisted longer than I would have predicted at the outset—I could’ve gone broke in the last five years betting against our collective ability to keep doing things it’s clear we shouldn’t be doing—the last few weeks especially have shown that the reservations myself and many other people felt were well-founded. Each week, a half-dozen or more high-profile games have been cancelled due to diagnosed infections in players and staff. Top teams are playing half a season and hoping it amounts to a championship resume. The sport is stumbling to an uncertain finish, rewriting schedules on the fly and hoping to still pretend it all matters. It’s a farce, but that doesn’t mean that yesterday’s cancellation of one particular rivalry game—while ultimately unsurprising—doesn’t sting.

I love the Ohio State-…