On Saturday November 30th in Columbus Ohio, the second ranked 10-1 Ohio State Buckeyes will host their rival team up north the unranked 6-5 Michigan Wolverines. This will be 120th meeting of these two teams. Michigan leads the series 61-51-6. Michigan also won the last three games against Ohio State. In 2020 the game was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Ohio State is a 21-point favorite and hasn’t beaten Michigan since 2019. Ohio State with a win would earn their spot in the Big Ten Championship against number one Oregon in Indianapolis Indiana on December 7th ,2024.  Before the 2024 season started this game was circled on the schedule by Buckeyes’ head coach Ryan Day. To say that this game is important would be a massive understatement.

Ohio State is playing to position themselves in the top ranking for the first college football playoffs. While Michigan is dealing with turnover, turmoil, and the sign stealing scandal. Their national championship winning head coach Jim Harbaugh bolted for the NFL to be the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. Current Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore was left to pick up the pieces. This game is primed to not only be an Ohio State win, but a dominating win as well. However, these rivalry games in the past have not always played out that way.

As we have all seen before with a rivalry game anything can happen. In a rivalry as intense as this one is upset wins have happened often. Can this happen on Saturday? Absolutely it could happen, and it is Ryan Day’s job to make sure that it doesn’t happen. Otherwise, he could be on a hot seat that gets a lot hotter. And it is Ohio State’s job to turn down the heat on that hot seat on Saturday by beating Michigan.