COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — It’s finally time for Ohio State and Michigan to meet.
After weeks of turmoil and a couple of close calls, they’ll do it with matching 11-0 records. It’s the second straight year that’s happened.
(2) OHIO STATE (11-0, 8-0) at (3) Michigan (11-0, 8-0); Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor MI
Sat., Nov. 25 (Noon/FOX)
“Our team did a great job of staying focused this week,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said following Saturday’s win over Minnesota in the Buckeyes’ final home game of the season. “Not easy to do for anybody, but we did stay in the moment and played well. But the moment we got in that locker room, it’s on to next week.”
This will be the latest top-five matchup between the rivals that is being touted as the “game of the century” with the winner claiming the championship of the Big Ten East Division and a berth in the Dec. conference championship game in Indianapolis against 16th-ranked Iowa.
The Hawkeyes clinched the West Division title with a 15-13 win over Illinois on Saturday.
The Big Ten champion is almost guaranteed a spot in the College Football Playoff when the final rankings are released later that week.
For Ohio State, this will be a chance to snap a two-game losing streak to the Wolverines.
“The guys on the team, we think about it every day, especially the way the last two years have gone. So, to be in kind of the same position that we were last year with a chance to right the ship, I think everybody’s definitely excited,” quarterback Kyle McCord said.
As of Sunday afternoon, FanDuel Sportsbook had Michigan favored by 3 1/2 points.
Ohio State passed Michigan and moved up to No. 2 in both major college football polls after
beating Minnesota 37-3.
Michigan had been No. 2 since the preseason but slipped a spot after playing its closest game yet. The Wolverines, without suspended head coach Jim Harbaugh, beat Maryland 31-24 for the 1,000th victory in program history.
Georgia remained No. 1 and No. 4 Washington flip-flopped with No. 5 Florida State in the AP Top 25.
It will be impossible to separate this game from the sign-stealing scandal that has shaken up the Michigan program over the past month.
If Ohio State wins, Buckeyes fans will offer that as evidence that the Wolverines needed nefarious help to beat OSU the last two years. If Michigan wins without the services of Connor Stalions — the former staffer at the center of the investigation — its partisans will say that shows the whole brouhaha was overblown.