Ohio State Campus Police: It's Not Like They're Playing Michigan

For Ohio Sate campus security, there is beefing up security for the Ohio State-Michigan football game. Then there is everything else.

"After talking with students, university staff members generally agreed that the intensity of interest in the basketball games is not as high as with last fall's Ohio State-Michigan football game," a campus official wrote in an e-mail this week to members of a campus-area safety panel. The e-mail was obtained by The Columbus Dispatch.

Before the Michigan game in November, the city banned parking, emptied trash bins and removed couches from porches in some neighborhoods near campus hoping to avoid a repeat of 2002 when fans rioted after Ohio State beat the Wolverines en route to college football's national championship.

Such is the life of a football school and some basketball success. The perceived expectations of mayhem are much lower. The concern for couch burning is just not there.

"People are excited -- the intensity is just not as much," said Steve Sterrett of Campus Partners for Community Urban Redevelopment, which issued the safety plan update.

It's like he's almost apologizing for the Buckeye students not being expected to riot over the chances of winning a Final Four basketball game versus Michigan. As if he is calling out their level of support for the basketball team. Sure, for the football team you will burn things, riot in the street and create chaos. But for the basketball team, it's just another Saturday night.