There’s Plenty That’s No Longer So Good About College Football…
College football (and all big time college athletics for that matter) has changed drastically. Some of the change has been great. But a lot of it has been a disaster, and we can debate the good and bad for days. Players no longer having their name, image & likeness exploited – good.
What’s not so good? How about two teams from the state of California in the Atlantic Coast Conference while something called Texas State is in the previously-two-member PAC-12 Conference, while 4 of the teams from the once-proud PAC are in a conference with Rutgers? Not good. Oh, and that conference happens to be the 18 team Big Ten in which Rutgers is 22-84 in conference play since they joined in 2014 in a move at the time that was championed by B1G commissioner Jim Delany as a path to competitiveness for Rutgers in a NY market share grab for the conference. They opened this 2026 season with one of the worst defeats…..ever? UMass broke a 16 game losing streak to blow the doors off of the Scarlet Knights 37-21 in a game that wasn’t as “close” as that score. Their basketball results aren’t much better at 80-152 in conference play. I guess while I’ve digressed down this wormhole I might as well mention that the other east coast team in the B1G opposite the 4 west coast teams is Maryland who has been 29-73 in conference football games. Let’s have a round of applause for greed at the expense of student athletes!!! Yeah. Not good.
Also not good, the playoff system. In my opinion it is a joke. They keep expanding it while more teams make the jump to the D1 FBS level with 62 teams now not in “power conferences” – most with a slim to zero shot of ever getting an invite. The constant rule changes (the sudden 5 years of eligibility going forward comes to mind), the portal madness, the agents, the opt-outs, the absurd money…..yep, it’s the Wild. Wild. West.
Okay let’s take a breath. The point of this article is not doom and gloom. In fact it’s quite the opposite, because a thing did happen these last couple of years that was genuinely awesome.
The Michigan vs. Oklahoma Series Was Everything That’s STILL Great About College Football
The Michigan Wolverines and the Oklahoma Sooners traveled to each other’s campuses to play a home and home series. Two blue bloods who had never visited each other before, and something really cool happened.
For starters, they played two pretty pitched battles and the home team defended each other’s turf with Oklahoma getting the victory in 2025 24-13 and the Wolverines getting them back 17-10 in 2026 at the Big House. The majority of the starters on both teams were returning starters from last year. The games seemed largely clean. There were penalties and a couple of late hits on both sides but it seemed to be largely absent of jawing and taunting. Two programs that have been there acting like they’ve been there. That was on the field.
Off the field as a former player and now very public storyteller I just feel a personal duty to welcome opposing fans to Ann Arbor. I’ve always felt that way – I want them to enjoy their visit. It felt really good to feel welcomed in Lincoln when we went to Nebraska last year. Random Husker fans saying hello and living up to that “Nebraska Nice” I’d heard about. And the crazy part was that NO ONE double checked to see what my religion was or what my politics were before saying hello and genuinely meaning it. A shared camaraderie around something very uniquely American – college football. Nice, right?
From the 1985 Orange Bowl to the Michigan vs Oklahoma 2026 Showdown
Now I didn’t make it to Norman last year, but I heard great things. And I did see Oklahoma play once. I’ve got a pretty eclectic history of having witnessed some of the craziest sports moments in history and this was one of them – the 1985 Orange Bowl in Miami which matched up Barry Switzer’s Sooners against former Michigan assistant and legendary coach Don James and his Washington Huskies. Former Wolverine player and eventual Michigan assistant coach Billy Harris was on that Washington staff and got us tickets as I remember it (Billy played for Michigan during the two years James was there). Charlie Horton was a ref in that game – he was an All-SEC halfback at Vanderbilt and played with my dad at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek in Virginia Beach when they were in the Navy and Charlie stood up in my parents’ wedding. That had to be a great team with a couple of studs from Vandy and Brockport State Teachers College (now SUNY Brockport) right? Ha! Meanwhile that game is remembered largely as the infamous “Sooner Schooner Game” in which the Sooner Schooner came out onto the field after Oklahoma made a chip shot 22 yard field goal in the 4th quarter. The problem was there was an illegal procedure penalty so the schooner shouldn’t have been on the field and was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty – those double penalties backed them up 20 yards! They attempted a 42 yard field goal that got blocked and instead of a 17-14 Oklahoma lead it was a 14-14 tie with a huge momentum swing that the Huskies took advantage of and won the game. I had some fun chatting with a few Sooner fans about it who couldn’t believe I was at that game over 40 years ago…
Anywho, I was bummed I missed the trip to Norman last year, but as i mentioned the trip to Nebraska was a treat. One of those bucket list stops, not to mention the bonus that should be on your bucket list; a Nebraska volleyball match which we attended after the football game. Wow. The mecca of volleyball indeed and the star of that team is my dear former teammate Vada Murray’s (may he forever rest in peace) daughter Harper.
Sooner Magic at the Big House: Why Michigan vs Oklahoma 2026 Was Special
Michigan Stadium was absolutely a bucket list stop for the Sooner fans.
Many of them dressed up for it. Dresses, cowboy hats and boots – all crimson of course. I’m not sure how many of them were there but it seemed like at least ten thousand (?) which makes for some pretty big swaths of red in the stadium and walking around town it seemed like a borderline takeover. I chatted with a bunch of them and to a person they were just excited to be there. They didn’t bring any collective arrogance with them that I could detect in any way. As a whole they didn’t come to talk trash, nor did a single Sooner I encountered say a word about the Western Michigan game which brought the haters out on social media (and the actual media) all week long like flies to a turd.
(As a side note I watched the JJ Buchanan Hail Mary catch in the Western game in a suite at the stadium completely by myself (as in no one in the suite but me) on my birthday – how’s that for a bizarre circumstance…. it’s a pretty good story for another time perhaps, but below is a pic of me and our Go Blue Hoops host, my buddy Tim McCormick who ran back to the suite to celebrate after almost getting on an elevator and missing it!)
No, these Sooners were there to have a good time and celebrate the occasion. They acted like guests – gracious guests. And then something on a scale I hadn’t seen before happened. They took to the Internet to post about what an amazing time they had – after a loss.
A love fest erupted on social media between the fan bases. It was incredible. Here’s just one example from the worst of the platforms, and I wish I would have saved a few more because now after 4 days they are harder to find.
Screenshot
Nice huh? There were a lot of these and I’d like to think a couple of them were Sooners I encountered. One fan said he was hoping for some “Sooner Magic” on their last possession which is a thing – I didn’t know that. So while (thankfully for us) there was no Sooner Magic at Michigan Stadium in the traditional sense, I still feel that this home and home series was indeed magical in many ways and I hope it happens more often as we get set to travel to Texas next season hopefully with a different script where the visitors win after the Longhorns beat us in Ann Arbor in 2024. Be nice to each other. Welcome the opposing fans to your town. Go online and say nice things about them. You’ll feel great about it. It’s an opportunity to enjoy some of the fundamental things that are still great about college football and college athletics in general.
What do you think? If you have had a similar experience at a big cross sectional matchup or even just any away game drop a comment below and tell us about it!
About the Author
Doug Cohen is a co-founder of Hail Media Group and a former University of Michigan football player, playing OLB, majoring in Psychology and graduating in 1992. He writes and speaks on college sports culture, digital media, and the evolving landscape of modern athletics. When he isn’t writing about sports culture, he publishes music snobbery and history commentary over at m10social.com.
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