The more things change, the more some things stay the same. After the Top 15 in the BCS once again reshuffled itself after a tumultuous Week 11, only one thing is certain: No. 2 Michigan and No. 1 Ohio State are the two best teams in the nation. Oh, and by the way, they are playing in Columbus Saturday. The winner of the showdown will earn a trip to Glendale, AZ, to play in the BCS National Championship Game. The loser will suffer the disgrace of...well...possibly playing in the National Championship Game in a rematch with the winner, but more likely earning a bid to play in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
How the system will work itself out is unknown, but for now college football fans have the opportunity to see one of the best rivalries in the country on its biggest stage yet. Michigan and Ohio State have met undefeated for the last game of the regular season twice before. Neither of those times, in 1970 nor in 1973, were both teams ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation.
The history of the annual matchup is incredible. The result of the game has decided the winner of the Big Ten Conference between the two schools a total of 20 times. The most impressive stretch came between 1969 and 1978 when the winner took the title crown in nine out of the 10 games played. This period between the two schools known as the ""10-year War"" marked the most contested era of the rivalry, with legendary Ohio State Head Coach Woody Hayes battling his former assistant Bo Schembechler on the Michigan sideline. Bo barely came out the victor in the war, compiling a 5-4-1 record against his former mentor.
Michigan Head Coach Lloyd Carr and Ohio State Head Coach Jim Tressel will man the helm of the two programs on Saturday. Niether carry the same outward animosity for each other the way Bo and Woody did in the 1970s, but they are hardly friendly either. Carr put it plainly at his pre-OSU press conference, ""I don't think you're going to see the Ohio State and Michigan coaches going to parties together.""
The Buckeyes under Tressel have been very successful. After going 7-5 in his first season in 2001, Tressel led Ohio State to a prefect 14-0 record and a national championship in 2002. For his career at OSU, Tressel is 61-13, and the Buckeyes are riding an 18-game winning streak heading into the game that started with the last seven games of the 2005 season. The stat most often pointed too, however, is his 4-1 record against Michigan.
Before the season, Carr came under fire for his team's futility against Tressel's Buckeyes. Carr started his career with Michigan much like Tressel started his with Ohio State. Carr won a national title in 1997 in his third season at the helm, and was a big reason for the firing of former Ohio State Head Coach John Cooper, who went 1-5 against Carr's squads. Now, Buckeye fans point to Tressel's success as a sign that Ohio State will take control of the series much like Michigan did during the John Cooper era when Cooper was 2-10-1 against the Wolverines.
Bo bristled when asked about the possibility of the tables being turned under Carr's watch.
""I don't give a damn about Tressel or Lloyd having to beat this guy or that guy. That's hogwash,"" the old coach said at a press conference. ""Go back through the history of the Michigan-Ohio State series. There have always been [streaks] where somebody would win two or three. That's just the way it is.""
Bo is correct that come Saturday neither Tressel nor Carr will be thinking about records, as their focus will be solely on the players and the game. If any sort of trend can be found in the recent history of the game, it is the influence that great individual performances have had in determining the outcome. From Tshimonga Biakabutuka's 313 rushing yards in the Wolverines' upset of the No. 2 Buckeye's in 1995, to the current senior Ohio State quarterback and Heisman frontrunner Troy Smith, who has racked up 723 total yards rushing and passing with five touchdowns in dominating the past two meetings, it seems that whoever owns the more special playmaker that year wins the game.
Smith could go down as one of the greatest performers in the 102-year history of the series with another jaw-dropping performance this weekend. Smith is by far the favorite to win the Heisman trophy, but such a distinction is not nearly as important to Buckeye fans as the title of ""Wolverine Slayer,"" and Smith could finish as one of the best ever. He will have one of the best receiving corps in the nation to help him. Juniors Ted Ginn and Anthony Gonzalez are as good as they come at getting the ball in space, and making the most of the play after the catch.
Michigan has plenty of players capable of a transcendent performance on Saturday. Junior quarterback Chad Henne is playing the best football of his career, and sophomore receiver Mario Manningham has a penchant for catching the deep ball. However, any Michigan player will tell you that it is junior runningback Michael Hart that makes the team tick. Hart is also a Heisman candidate, and has shown that despite his slight 5'8"", 195 pound frame, he can run defenders over as well as slash around them. Hart has not had the opportunity to make a major impact in the series, being limited by injuries the past two seasons. This year Hart is entering the game fully healthy and looks to provide a spark for the Wolverines that was missing in the last two meetings.
The series has seen some stout defenses over the years, but one would have to search hard for a year that featured two better ones than this in the same game. The Buckeye ""D"" is the more opportunistic of the two. Ohio State ranks first in the nation, giving up just 7.8 points per game, and is ranked fifth in the nation with 27 takeaways. The best word to describe the Wolverine defense is simply ""nasty"". The Wolverine front seven is arguably the best in the nation, letting up only 29.9 yards per game on the ground and leading the nation in quarterback sacks with 40. If anybody can take over a game on defense, then Ohio State sophomore linebacker James Lauranitis and Michigan senior defensive end Lamarr Woodley are two of the best in the business. Both players are finalists for postseason awards.
The Michigan-Ohio State rivalry packs it all: history, tradition, playmakers and competitiveness. It is more than fitting that over the past 50 meetings, the series is tied 24-24-2. This year's meeting presents the ultimate daydream of the college football fan. It does not get any bigger than this.
