No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Michigan meet Saturday in a matchup that has taken The Game to a new level both on and off the field.
Given both teams are 11-0, a berth in the Big Ten championship and College Football Playoff are on the line and the ramifications from a Michigan in-person scouting and sign-stealing scandal means Jim Harbaugh won’t be on the sideline, one might say this game already ranks among the classics before the Wolverines and Buckeyes even kick off.
“Well, sure, you could say that, but why do we talk about ’06?” Big Ten Network analyst Jake Butt asked Sporting News. “It wasn’t the lead-up that played a part in the context, but it was on the field. The 2016 game is going to be there because of the on-field. You have to have a competitive game, and who the hell knows what happens in this game? I would imagine it’s a competitive game, but I can’t tell you that right now.”
Which games qualify as the true classics that are truly the top-five games? We came up with a few requirements.
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Four of the five games on this list were one-score games. Four of the five games on this list were top-10 showdowns. We made one exception, but it was the right exception. Some huge matchups were left out. The 1950 Snow Bowl, where Michigan beat No. 8 Ohio State in a game where the teams combined for 45 punts, did not make the list. No. 2 Ohio State beat No. 14 Michigan in 2002. No. 3 Michigan beat No. 4 Ohio State 45-23 last year. Those memorable turning points didn’t make the list either.
Bottom line: It has to mean something to both sides to this day. Was there controversy? What were the implications for the Big Ten, Rose Bowl, College Football Playoff or national championship? Why do Ohio State and Michigan fans still remember that game so damn much?
These are the games that always make the montage. We chose five, with the Buckeyes and Wolverines winning two each. Of course, both sides know which tie game made the list.
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Ranking top five Ohio State-Michigan games
1. No. 1 Ohio State 42, No. 2 Michigan 39 (2006)
Title: No. 1 vs. No. 2
Records: Michigan 11-0, Ohio State 11-0
Where: Ohio Stadium (Columbus)
What happened: This is the only “Game of the Century” between the rival schools. Jim Tressel and Lloyd Carr led their respective teams to a perfect record, which built up the drama with a BCS championship appearance on the table. The buildup took a somber turn when Bo Schembechler died the day before the game, but the game was amazing. Ohio State led 28-14 at halftime and held off the Wolverines in the second half. Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith passed for 316 yards and four TDs to lead the Buckeyes to victory. Michigan and Ohio State have had identical 11-0 records the last two seasons, and the fact this year’s game is being mentioned in the same sentence as 2006 shows the magnitude.
2. No. 1 Ohio State 10, No. 4 Michigan 10 (1973)
Title: “Tiebreaker”
Records: Michigan 10-0, Ohio State 9-0
Where: Michigan Stadium (Ann Arbor)
What happened: This was at the height of the “The Ten Year War” between Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler. In one of the greatest games in the rivalry’s history, Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin gave the Buckeyes a 10-0 lead, but the Wolverines rallied and had a chance to win in the end, but Mike Lantry missed a field goal try and quarterback Dennis Franklin broke his collarbone later in the game. The game ended in a tie, but it was the aftermath that everyone remembers. Big Ten athletic directors took a vote that sent Ohio State to the Rose Bowl instead of Michigan, a decision that still resonates in Ann Arbor 50 years later. The Wolverines did not go to a bowl game, and Schembechler said he was “bitterly disappointed” in the decision afterward.
3. No. 3 Ohio State 30, No. 2 Michigan 27, 2 OTs (2016)
Title: “The Spot”
Records: Michigan 10-1, Ohio State 10-1
Where: Ohio Stadium (Columbus)
What happened: In the second meeting between Jim Harbaugh and Urban Meyer, the Buckeyes rallied from a 10-point deficit in the second half to force overtime. The teams traded TDs before Michigan settled for a field goal in the second OT. Ohio State then opted to go for it on fourth down, and J.T. Barrett just made the line with “The Spot.” That call continues to be a hotly-debated topic seven years later. Curtis Samuel’s game-winning TD followed, and the Buckeyes made the College Football Playoff. Harbaugh, meanwhile, blasted officials in the aftermath, echoing Schembechler’s “bitterly disappointed” sentiments from 1973.
4. No. 1 Michigan 20, No. 4 Ohio State 14 (1997)
Title: “Charles Woodson”
Records: Michigan 10-0, Ohio State 10-1
Where: Michigan Stadium (Ann Arbor)
What happened: Ohio State has six Heisman Trophy winners, including the only two-time winner in Archie Griffin. Michigan has three. Perhaps no player put a larger signature on The Game than Charles Woodson, who set up a touchdown with a 37-yard reception, scored on a 78-yard punt return for a TD and came up with a red-zone interception to lead the Wolverines to a berth in the Rose Bowl. Michigan would clinch a share of the national championship there by beating Washington State. The Buckeyes would counter with the 2002 game, and that would be a fair mirror-image game.
5. No. 12 Michigan 24, No. 1 Ohio State 12 (1969)
Title: “The Ten Year War begins”
Records: Michigan 7-2, Ohio State 8-0
Where: Michigan Stadium (Ann Arbor)
What happened: This game is the exception to the rule, because it took everything that happened before it – like the 50-14 victory Ohio State enjoyed in 1968 where Hayes allegedly said he went for a late two-point conversion because “he couldn’t go for three” – and took it to the next level. Schembechler, a former Ohio State assistant, guided the Wolverines to an upset victory against the defending national champions. The Buckeyes committed seven turnovers, and there were no points scored after halftime. This was the beginning of the greatest chapter in the history of the rivalry.