Three best Ohio State Football vs. Michigan matchups in history
By Ryan Stano
The Ohio State football program is the winningest program in college football history. They have a long and storied program. Michigan does too. They are also one of college football’s winningest programs. Both have been at the top of the food chain for quite a while.
Now they get to face off with each other again. This is the first time that TTUN has come to Columbus since 2018 because they were too scared to play The Game in 2020. This is also the first time they are looking for back-to-back victories over the Buckeyes since 2012.
There have been a lot of great matchups in this rivalry’s history. A lot of Big Tent titles have been determined by this final matchup of the season for these two teams. Some national championship implications have been in play in this final game as well.
There are three specific matchups that I have identified as the greatest matchups in this rivalry’s history. Forewarning, I may be a bit biased because all of these are modern matchups. I know there were some great games in the 60s and 70s that Woody had his hands in. But these seemed to matter more to me.
The first matchup happens to be the most recent matchup between the two teams.
3. Ohio State football vs. Michigan 2022
That’s right. I think this is the third-biggest matchup in the rivalry’s history. I think it’s so big because it’s the number two and number three teams in the country coming into the game undefeated. It’s not often these two teams both make it to The Game clean of losses.
The winner of this game on Saturday will likely win the Big Ten as well and will make it to the College Football Playoff. The loser risks ending their season without a conference title or a shot to win a national title. It’s hard to get bigger stakes than that.
This is also a matchup between two great teams that have major flaws. Ohio State struggles to run the ball and Michigan can’t throw it. Caan the Ohio State football team overcome that flaw to get revenge? Or will TTUN control the clock and dominate the line of scrimmage as they did a year ago?
It’s hard to get higher stakes than this when it comes to the greatest rivalry game in all of sports. The next game on this list had similar stakes too, but both teams weren’t undefeated heading into The Game.