COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — All that separates Ohio State from a season for the ages is a contest so big that everyone simply calls it ”The Game.”
Just five teams in the program’s 122 previous years have gone through a campaign unbeaten and untied. The Buckeyes (11-0, 7-0 Big Ten) can become the sixth Saturday when they take on archrival Michigan.
Perfection is exceedingly rare, whether for a baseball pitcher, a pearl or a college football team.
”That’s the goal for every team. I mean, why not?” said former NFL and Ohio State All-American offensive lineman Jim Lachey, now a radio analyst for Buckeyes games. ”Everybody dreams about that opportunity.”
Since the schools officially saved the best for last and moved their biggest game to the end of the schedule in 1935, Ohio State has carried a perfect record into the Michigan game 12 times, going 8-3-1.
Some believe that it is more difficult to run the table and win every game now than ever before, due to scholarship limits, spread-the-wealth conferences and even small schools getting a chance to appear regularly on television.
Just last week many experts already had Kansas State and Oregon in the national championship game, virtually conceding that they would win the rest of their games and put up unblemished records.
Instead, they both lost, leaving No. 1 Notre Dame and fourth-ranked Ohio State as the only major unbeatens left in the country.
Continue Reading: Buckeyes close to perfection; Michigan in way
