Kirk Herbstreit debates if Ohio State would rather beat Michigan or win another national championship

The Ohio State Buckeyes are preparing to travel North to Ann Arbor to take on the Michigan Wolverines for the 2025 edition of The Game. There, they’ll be looking to snap a four-game losing streak in the series on the way to the College Football Playoff.

At one point, not winning The Game could have cost Ohio State or Michigan a shot at a national championship. That wasn’t the case a season ago, though, and the Buckeyes sprinted to a national championship after the loss. In fact, that was their last loss, and they appear primed for another massive CFP run.

With that in mind, analysts Kirk Herbstreit and Joey Galloway broke down the Ohio State attitude toward the game on Nonstop. In particular, he emphasized that there are fans who would rather see a win over Michigan than another national championship.

“I think it’s a split decision,” Kirk Herbstreit said. “I do, I think 75, 80 percent would take what happened last year.”

A year ago, Michigan won 13-10 in Columbus. That game ended emotionally, with a fight breaking out on the field. At the time, there was immense fan backlash against head coach Ryan Day, who fell to 1-4 against the Wolverines. There was even some thought he was on the hot seat, until the national championship run.

“I think 25 percent would say, ‘ I just want to beat Michigan,'” Herbstreit said. “What do you think the percentage is?”

Joey Galloway commented that a season ago, the national championship was more important. Now that Buckeyes fans have that, however, they’ll likely be flipping back over and putting more emphasis on Ohio State to beat Michigan. That, to Kirk Herbstreit, is a matter of what era a fan comes from.

“Yeah, like I said, it depends on your generation. I think a lot of people, they’re in chatrooms. They get their feelings hurt. They want to beat Michigan at all costs,” Herbstreit said. “And it doesn’t matter what happens before that, game, what happens after that game, they just wanna be able to get on the chat thing and be able to have, ‘We’re better. We beat.’ I think there’s a lot of people that are into that, and I think there’s kind of the newer fan that thinks, whether we win or lose this game, we’ve still got to get ready for either the Big Ten Championship or the CFP. It’s all about the CFP. I think that’s what a lot of people learned last week.”

Kickoff is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. EST on Saturday. Regardless of who wins, what’s more important for Herbstreit and fans outside the rivalry is that it turns out to be a good game.

“I don’t care,” Herbstreit said. “For me, I just wanna see a great game. We have, I think, there’s snow in the forecast. Hopefully, it’s gray, it’s dark, it’s cold. The uniforms are awesome on the field there. I love it.”