Michigan v. Ohio St.

Here are the last eighteen meetings between these two ancient rivals (home teams listed first):

11/24/01:  Michigan 20 - 26 Ohio St.
11/23/02:  Ohio St. 14 - 9 Michigan
11/22/03:  Michigan 35 - 21 Ohio St.
11/20/04:  Ohio St. 37 - 21 Michigan
11/19/05:  Michigan 21 - 25 Ohio St.
11/18/06:  Ohio St. 42 - 39 Michigan
11/17/07:  Michigan 3 - 14 Ohio St.
11/22/08:  Ohio St. 42 - 7 Michigan
11/21/09:  Michigan 10 - 21 Ohio St.
11/27/10:  Ohio St. 37 - 7 Michigan
11/26/11:  Michigan 40 - 34 Ohio St.
11/24/12:  Ohio St. 26 -21 Michigan
11/30/13:  Michigan 41 - 42 Ohio St.
11/29/14:  Ohio St. 42 - 28 Michigan
11/28/15:  Michigan 13 - 42 Ohio St.
11/26/16:  Ohio St. 30 - 27 Michigan
11/25/17:  Michigan 20 - 31 Ohio St.
11/24/18:  Ohio St. 62 - 39 Michigan

If you're keeping track at home, that's a record of 16-2 for the Buckeyes in the 21st century.  That's not much of a rivalry.  Michigan hasn't won in Columbus since Bill Clinton was president.  Michigan never beat Urban Meyer while he was at OSU.  Michigan hasn't held OSU to less than 30 points since 2012.

The odds-makers aren't giving Michigan much of a chance this year, either.  OSU's closest game was an 11-point win over Penn State last week.  Every other game has been a blowout.  According to Vegas, the Buckeyes are favored by nine in a game where 52 points are expected.  That would work out to something like a 30-21 victory for OSU.

And yet, I have a feeling that we will see some real drama today.  Early in the year, Wisconsin beat Michigan 35-14, and most folks haven't paid attention to them since.  But they are 9-2 on the year, with their only other loss coming by seven points at Penn State.  Here are their last four games:

10/26/19:  Michigan 45 - 14 Notre Dame
11/02/19:  Maryland 7 - 38 Michigan
11/16/19:  Michigan 44 - 10 Michigan St.
11/23/19:  Indiana 14 - 39 Michigan

Yes, Indiana is Indiana.  Yes, it's ludicrous that Maryland is in the Big 10.  But Notre Dame and Michigan State are long-time rivals who have tormented the Wolverines in the past -- this year Michigan crushed both of them in the Big House.  That's the version of Michigan that Ohio State is going to see today.

Fifty years ago, Ohio State was coming off of the 1968 national championship.  The Buckeyes were ranked number one all year.  They had no close games in the regular season.  The week before the Michigan game, they toyed with a Purdue team that was ranked 10th in the country, beating them 42 to 14.  But on November 22, 1969, they went to Ann Arbor and lost, 24 to 12.  The Bo Schembechler era had begun.  Jim Harbaugh has a chance to start his own era today.  I'm very curious to see what will happen.