I have to admit this whole not saying "m" in anything seems forced. I don't remember this being an actual thing until recently and it almost cheapens The Game and everything that's at stake for this team. I saw a poster on another thread get shredded for his opinion on the letter "m" and it seemed unjust. As if you need an excuse to hate them, and that you're somehow not a true Buckeye if you don't leave the M out of every sentence. And they're dictating how we use the alphabet. What kind of message is that?

Have we forgotten the history of this game? Has the program's domination made us so short-sighted that we need to resort to this? Some of us weren't born yesterday. Some of us still remember those dreary thanksgivings in the 90's that followed heartbreaking losses. Some of us still see Woodson, Streets and Biakabatuka in our sleep. Some folks older than me still see Howard, Kolesar, Harbaugh, Leach, Mandich and even Harmon when they close their eyes. None of us who experienced those nightmares will ever need contrived routines to justify their animosity.

The players on this team and the current undergrads are too young to remember when Michigan dominated The Game, and you can't hold that against them. But I hope that none of them, especially the players, need to exclude the letter M or tell awful, interchangeable jokes to get up for this weekend. Michigan is a terrible football team this year. Everybody knows it. But that means nothing on Saturday.

The Game has always been, and always will be, about respect for the two programs and respecting the fact that you can lose it no matter how good you were coming into it. That's really it. There's a endearing beauty to how it's so simple yet so impactful on the lives of everyone involved. The memories of each triumph and defeat remain with us for as long as we are able to remember. It doesn't need promotion and it doesn't need to shrink the alphabet.