Justin Boren was an offensive lineman for the University of Michigan. In terms of getting to the top of Division I, and possibly getting drafted into the NFL after his collegiate career, there aren’t many better places than Ann Arbor for an O-lineman. One would think that a transfer would be unlikely from a position of power on a team of significance. But Justin Boren is leaving Michigan for good, and he’s going to Ohio State instead.

Think for a second about what that means in the overblown terms of a rivalry that only really matters for one week a year. Boren is leaving Michigan—the Big House, the revelry that is Ann Arbor in football season—for Ohio State—the school with “The” in front of its name, the college town metropolis that is Columbus. From blue to red. He’s taking a year off to pull the transfer.

If this were an issue of playing time, or if Boren had transferred to essentially any other school (save for possibly Michigan State, Penn State or Wisconsin), there wouldn’t be much of a story here. Surprisingly, the issue is not one of playing time but one of values. According to Boren—who spoke through OSU coach Jim Tressel—the administration of Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez has led to an “erosion of family values” at the school.

Boren, who hasn’t yet decided what he wants to be his major, will still have two years of eligibility left after sitting out the upcoming 2008 season. So that’ll be two years at Michigan, and two years at Ohio State. The issue might be a little deeper than simple “family values” at Michigan, as Boren is from the Columbus suburb of Pickerington, Ohio. That might have a little something to do with the about face, as it’s likely he has more Buckeye fans in his old stomping grounds than Wolverine supporters.

Still, this can be combined with the way Rich Rodriguez arrived at Michigan to raise questions about the coach. Remember, when Rodriguez left West Virginia he was accused of destroying important documents on his way out the door. The issue lasted a few weeks and then fell by the wayside in terms of national coverage. Vehement statements were made on both sides, but in the end Rich Rodriguez was still the coach at Michigan.

Boren’s statement of transfer doesn’t go very far in-depth about how these values have eroded under Rodriguez. It could be a simple difference in coaching between Rodriguez and the recently retired Lloyd Carr who recruited and coached Boren. It’s commonplace for a team undergoing a coaching change to see transfers and a general change in the approach a team takes to football. From small schools to football factories, in all divisons, coaching philosophy is important to the consistency of a team. Yet it seems like something more must be happening in this particular instance, because again the transfer was anything but routine.

When a player transfers due to a coach or a philosophy issue, they don’t usually go to their old school’s chief rival. Often the transfer takes them to a lower division, so they don’t have to skip a season for the move. To go from Michigan to Ohio State implies that there may be some animosity between Boren and coach Rodriguez. Speculating on why that might be, of course, would be irresponsible. It’s entirely possible that Boren is simply going closer to home, because if he’s going to learn a new system he might as well do so close to friends and family. But “family values” would be an interesting choice of phrase in that case.

When a program’s family values are eroding, that means something entirely different than a change from a power offense to a spread attack. Blocking schemes are not a family value. In fact, that phrase doesn’t sound at all related to football. It leads one to wonder what is going on at Michigan, where a year ago the student body was dreaming of a national championship.

It might be easy to forget that coming into the 2007 season, Michigan had one of the most stacked teams on paper. With a very solid offensive line anchored by Jake Long (who already signed a contract to be the top pick in this year’s NFL Draft), a highly-touted quarterback in Chad Henne passing to a playmaker like Mario Manningham, and Mike Hart coming out of the backfield the Wolverines were given a top five ranking and status as the “team to beat” in the Big Ten. Then Appalachian State came into the Big House and shocked Michigan at home. Then Oregon did the same.

Michigan never fully recovered from those first two losses. They snuck their way back into the national rankings briefly before being toppled by Ohio State to close out their season. After winning the Gator Bowl, coach Carr retired. After a brief courting of Louisiana State coach Les Miles the Wolverines snatched up Rodriguez, who had revived the program at West Virginia in recent years.

The Ann Arbor faithful will be a bit confused this year, looking at an entirely new football team. Henne and Manningham have left. Jake Long has left. They’ve hired a coach known for his spread offense, and now Justin Boren is fleeing the scene to go to Columbus. Last year’s shortcomings will certainly be a thing of the past this time around, and optimism will once again be the prevailing feeling at Michigan.

Coach Rodriguez has his work cut out for him. The Big Ten is on the rise once again, with emerging programs at Illinois and Wisconsin and that ever-dangerous Iowa program. There will simply be no time for controversy or questions about values. The team that remains will have to come together as a unit, and that’s what makes Boren’s statement so unnerving for the future of Michigan football.

Meanwhile, Justin Boren will be adapting to his new campus in Columbus, probably by taking frequent trips home to Pickerington, deciding on a major and watching coach Tressel operate his offense in anticipation of being inserted into it.

No doubt that, years after Maurice Clarett caused a commotion and left in a huff, Jim Tressel has learned the importance of family values in football. The question is, what impact will these values have on the OSU-UM rivalry?

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Tim Williams is a columnist covering college sports for MCN Sports. E-mail Tim at TWilliams@mcn.tv