COLUMBUS — Tommy and Thad aren’t exactly Woody and Bo.

And Michigan basketball isn’t exactly Michigan football these days.

But Ohio State fans don’t really notice a difference, or so I thought.

Football season is over. Do they still hate you (and me)?

You’ve probably seen the Lou Holtz-inspired bumper stickers that litter Ohio roadways that say, “I root for two teams: Ohio State and whoever is playing Michigan.” You may have been pelted with a battery or a slur during a football game at the Horseshoe. Even grandma Buckeye may have cursed at you for wearing a block ‘M’.

Being from slightly south of Columbus — Winter Park, Fla. — I wondered where the hatred comes from. Does it really exist anymore?

I tried to figure this out roaming around Value City Arena in Columbus before and during Michigan’s 72-46 loss to the Buckeyes because I wasn’t watching the game. Had this column actually been about the game, I would have printed Michigan’s assist-to-turnover ratio over and over and over (4-to-29).

Plus, what I found out was surprising.

 

“Last time I was down here was for the football game,” Maize Rage member Nate Cesmebasi said. “I had people come up to me and say, ‘I don’t know where you are from but just go back to Michigan.’ People here just don’t like Michigan.”

And that is what I thought, too. This is the impression Michiganders give us out-of-staters. Even more Maize Ragers confirmed it.

Michigan freshman Jim Stevenson said that the last time he was in Columbus for a Michigan football game, he felt his life was in danger.

And then I asked Jim if Michigan fans hate Buckeyes as much as Buckeyes hate Michigan. Jim and his friends said they do. They hate the Buckeyes even more so than Michigan State.

More than Michigan State?

State is like our little sister who beats us in basketball. I thought the in-state Sparties were the bigger rival.

Jim and his friends — all Michigan natives who have friends at State — disagreed.

“(Ohio State), I can’t root for,” Stevenson said. “I try and root for the Big Ten teams, but this is the one team that I make an exception for.”

Who’s worse? Ohio State or Michigan State, I asked?

“Ohio State by far,” they said in unison.

Certainly, Buckeye fans would feel the same about Michigan teams.

“Any time Ohio State is not playing Michigan, I always root for Michigan,” said lifelong Buckeye fan Donn Moore, who works at nearby Ohio Wesleyan University. “Anytime we are not playing them, we are rooting for them. You have a good amount of people here in Columbus that are Michigan fans. Everybody here is not just for Ohio State.”

Are there a lot of Buckeyes fans like you?

“Probably not,” Donn said with a hearty chuckle.

But the more Buckeyes fans I talked to, the more I realized Donn and I were wrong. I found that a lot of Ohio State fans actually root for Michigan when the two teams aren’t playing each other.

Red and Marge Belton, 77 and 74 years old, respectively, travel to every Ohio State basketball game from Lima, Ohio, a town over 100 miles from Value City Arena. Wearing a red Tressel-vest, Red also said he and Marge hadn’t missed a Buckeye football game in over twenty years until Marge had open heart surgery.

These two must hate Michigan.

So I asked if they would root for Michigan when it doesn’t play Ohio State.

“We do,” Red said. “Particularly in the bowl games.”

Red said his answer was typical for a Buckeyes fan — they generally root for Big Ten teams.

That makes sense, but I still figured they wouldn’t root for Michigan. Every Buckeyes fan I spoke to was “lifelong” and didn’t really hate Michigan at all.

Then I ventured into the $5-million Huntington Club Concourse on the second floor of the arena to find a bar. I’d find honesty there.

I approached Roger, Gary and Stan — all middle-aged — enjoying a Miller Lite, Guiness and Michelob Ultra, respectively.

We talked about the rivalry a bit, and then Roger said:

“They now spell Lloyd Carr’s name with three L’s for his three losses to Tressel.”

Good one.

Roger told me that Buckeyes fans would rather finish 8-4, beat Michigan and go to the Alamo Bowl instead of finishing the season 10-1, lose to Michigan and go to a New Year’s Day bowl.