At Ohio State, people avoid saying “Michigan.” They say “The Team Up North” instead. The coach Woody Hayes gave Michigan this name so that he would not have to say the name of the state and the school.
The custom outlived him. The coach Urban Meyer refused to say the word. The coach Ryan Day explained the rule: “We’ll say the state up north. We’ll say Ann Arbor. We’ll say the blue team. Maybe even say the Wolverines. But we certainly can’t say the M-word.”