The Illibuck has been around long enough to become one of college football’s quirkiest prizes, but for Ohio State, it has never quite climbed into the same lane as the sport’s biggest hardware.
That’s part of the odd charm of the trophy game between the Buckeyes and Illinois. The Illibuck began in 1925 as a live turtle, making it the second-oldest trophy in the Big Ten, trailing only the Little Brown Jug shared by Michigan and Minnesota. Back when Ohio State and Illinois met in the final game of the season every year, the turtle was chosen because of its long lifespan.
That idea did not last long. The original turtle died in April of 1926 after Illinois won the trophy the year before, and the schools replaced it with a wooden version. The Illibuck that will be handed out this Saturday is the 10th version of the trophy.
The problem for the series is that history moved in different directions for the two programs. When the trophy was created, Ohio State and Illinois were both chasing Western Conference titles.
What developed over time was a far bigger gap. Ohio State became a national force, winning the national title under Paul Brown in 1942 and rising again as one of the sport’s elite programs under Woody Hayes in the 1950s and 1960s.
Illinois, by contrast, spent much of the stretch from World War II until 2020 among the Big Ten’s weakest teams, with only occasional strong seasons mixed in.
That imbalance turned the rivalry into something far less central, to the point that the teams stopped playing every year. They did face each other annually from 1914 through 2002, then the series became yearly again when the Big Ten split into divisions and both schools were in the Leaders Division. Realignment in 2014 changed that again, with Ohio State moved to the East and Illinois to the West.
From 2014 through 2023, they met only three times. When the Big Ten expanded in 2024 and schools were allowed to protect certain rivalries, Ohio State and Illinois both passed on keeping the Illibuck protected.
The 2025 meeting is the first in eight years, which is the longest stretch they have ever gone without playing. The Buckeyes are set to go back to Champaign in 2028.
None of that helps the trophy matter much in Columbus, where one rivalry still swallows the conversation. Before Ohio State became a national power, Michigan ruled the West.
Once the Buckeyes started pushing the Wolverines, that became the rivalry that defined the program. There simply has not been much room for another one, especially because Ohio State does not have the kind of obvious secondary rival Michigan has with Michigan State.
There was a stretch in the late 2000s and 2010s when Michigan was not seriously threatening Ohio State, and fans searched for another opponent to fill that spot. Michigan State, Penn State and even Clemson all had their moments in that discussion. But once Michigan returned to national prominence, the hierarchy snapped right back into place: nobody is ever going to be Michigan for Ohio State.
That also helps explain why Ohio State-Michigan does not have a traditional trophy. In a way, it does.
Ohio State players get gold pants for winning the game, while Michigan players receive a necklace with a pendant showing the final score. Each side has its own reward, but there is no actual trophy sitting in the middle of the rivalry.
It is a strange fit for the Big Ten, a conference built on trophy games, to have its biggest showdown without one.
Ohio State’s place in the league has always been a little unusual. The Buckeyes are not surrounded by obvious Big Ten rivals in the way some other schools are, and geography does not offer much help. There is no other Big Ten team in Ohio, and the only other power-conference school in the state is Cincinnati, whose football success is relatively recent and whose series with Ohio State has never become a regular thing.
The border rivals have not solved the problem either. Indiana and Purdue have never been consistently strong enough to rise to the level of a true Buckeye rival, even with Indiana’s recent success.
Michigan State could have fit the trophy-rival mold, but both schools have always had their eyes on Michigan. Ohio State-Penn State might have been the place to create one when the Nittany Lions joined the conference in 1993, but that never happened.
So the Buckeyes keep coming back to the same reality: the trophies that matter most are the gold pants in November, the Stagg trophy in December, and the College Football Playoff trophy in January. A wooden turtle may look a little funny next to that group, but that is also part of what makes college football special.
No other sport has quite this kind of thing, and Ohio State fans ought to lean into it more than they do. The expectations in Columbus can make the season feel heavy, and trophies like the Illibuck add a little levity to the whole operation.
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