This year is one of the strangest years in the long, storied Ohio State/Michigan rivalry. There is a cloud over the Big Ten due to its gross underperformance and aggressive sanctions preventing two of the highest-profiled programs in the nation to not be able to compete for the league or national championship this year.
Despite that fact, the Ohio State Buckeyes, seemingly unranked because of their disqualification from BCS rankings, are surprisingly undefeated at 8-0 this year and ranked No. 9 by AP. They are in danger of going undefeated in a year in which it will count for very little.
While Urban Meyer has righted the ship faster than expected in Columbus, Brady Hoke’s Wolverines were projected to carry the banner for the conference this year after a resurgent 9-3 year last year which ended with a Sugar Bowl win. Instead, the Wolverines have in a sense been a replica of the conference’s fate this fall. Blessed with an opportunity to take on the mighty SEC and it’s flag-bearer Alabama, it failed miserably, and then in a rivalry game against a resurgent Notre Dame team, they lost that contest as well. It seems as if the Big Ten’s hope and respect went down the stretch with Michigan’s struggles this year.
At the end of the day, even though OSU is not eligible to compete for postseason treasures, they still are a team created in The Ohio State University’s image. Michigan, despite it’s early-season struggles, is still a team that could win the conference and post a 10-win season. As a result, I believe that in a few weeks, we will have the best matchup between these classic rivals that we have had since the historic No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in 2006 that earned OSU a BCS championship birth.
Here are 5 reasons why:
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