MAIZE RUNNERS
Penn Staters love to hate Ohio State, but Michigan has been nearly as vexing
sk a devout Penn State football
fan which opponent is the Nit-
tany Lions' No. 1 rival nowa-
days, and Ohio State is almost certain to
be at the forefront, with Michigan prob-
ably second.
Sure, Pitt would garner some votes
based on tradition, and maybe there's a
trickle of support for Nebraska because
of the controversies generated in 1982,
1994 and 2012.
Even the Big Ten endorsed Ohio State
as Penn State's prime conference rival in
a revised policy that made the Buckeyes
the Nittany Lions' annual
opponent starting in the
2002 season, with the
other 11 teams rotating on
and off the schedule as
Michigan did four times:
in 2003, 2004, 2010 and
2011. That changed in
2014 when Maryland and Rutgers joined
the conference and round-robin games
within each new seven-team division
became the seasonal norm.
In the early years of Penn State's Big
Ten competition, the rivalry with
Michigan was more intense than the
one with Ohio State. Surpris-
ingly, Penn State had never
played Michigan prior to its
inaugural Big Ten season in
1993, while the Lions had a
colorful history of eight
games against Ohio State
from 1912 to 1980, dominat-
A FINE LINE Penn
State receiver
Tony Johnson
was ruled out of
bounds on a key
play in 2002, but
replays showed
otherwise.
Photo
by Steve Manuel
A
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