DaytonDailyNews.com

CLEVELAND — Thanksgiving leftovers and the Ohio State-Michigan football game could become a new tradition.

The Big Ten will move to a 13-week schedule beginning in 2009, pushing the rivalry game and the rest of the conference's schedule to the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Big Ten school presidents voted to support a 13-week schedule Dec. 2, spokesman Scott Chipman said. That will allow teams one week off during the 12-game regular season.

Since the NCAA adopted a 12-game schedule in 2006, many Big Ten coaches have been calling for a bye week to give coaches and players a mental and physical break instead of three straight months of football.

Other coaches, including Ohio State's Jim Tressel and retiring Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, supported the Big Ten tradition of ending the season before Thanksgiving, though no other conference in college football finishes as early.

"I really like the fact our players and coaches can go home for Thanksgiving," Tressel said Nov. 20, three days after the Michigan game and two days before Thanksgiving.

"We ask so much of these kids, to train all year long, and for them to get four days to just be kids with their parents, I put a lot of value on that," Tressel said.

The move to after Thanksgiving isn't unprecedented. Since 1941, the Ohio State-Michigan game has been played after Thanksgiving 16 times, but only four times in the past 29 years. The most recent was in 2001.

Chipman said teams may choose to move a game to after Thanksgiving next year if it is cleared through the Big Ten, but Ohio State won't be changing its schedule.