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LGHL Ohio State and TTUN at No. 2 and No. 3 in the CFP rankings, but this game is No. 1 historically

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Matt Tamanini

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Ohio State and TTUN at No. 2 and No. 3 in the CFP rankings, but this game is No. 1 historically
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here

Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch

Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK

It might not technically be No. 1 on your score cards, but it will be No. 1 in the history books.

As announced last night, the two-time defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs are again atop the College Football Playoff rankings for the second week in a row, with the Ohio State Buckeyes and Mitten Men in second and third respectively. That means that for the second year in a row, The Game will be between the No. 2 and No. 3 teams. Of course, last year, one of those squads was deeply enmeshed in a widespread cheating scheme that has landed its team’s head coach his second three-game suspension of the season and is currently threatening to bring down the entire program in a mass of crumbling destruction.

Even though neither side is the top-ranked team in the country, this game, for reasons on the field and off, is simply the biggest game in the history of the rivalry, and — with all due respect to Princeton and Rutgers — quite possible, in the history of college football.

Now, I know what you are thinking. Yes, I have a tendency to get swept up in the emotions of the moment, but I have been thinking this for a couple of weeks now, and I believe many of the other reporters and commentators around the beat believe this is true as well.

Let’s break it down from both the on-field and off-field perspectives.

What Is at Stake for the Teams in the 2023 Ohio State vs. ❌ichigan Game?​

  • The final Big Ten East title
  • A berth to the Big Ten Championship Game
  • An almost certain Big Ten Conference title
  • A nearly guaranteed spot in the College Football Playoff
  • TTUN players want to prove that their success in recent years was not dependent on sign-stealing.
  • If the Corn and Blue win the game, it would mean that Ohio State’s entire 2020 recruiting class would have gone four years without beating their rivals.
  • For the Buckeyes, a pair of gold pants are on the line.
  • Based on the amount of tearful tributes that we’ve seen coming out of Ann Arbor in recent weeks, clearly the players want to win for their coach.

What Is at Stake for the Coaches in the 2023 Ohio State vs. ❌ichigan Game?​

Syndication: The Columbus Dispatch
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
  • OSU’s Ryan Day needs a win to fend off fans and boosters unhappy with his inability to win the big games.
  • Day wants to prove that not only was he not born on third base, but the only way that Jim Harbaugh can beat him is to cheat.
  • TTUN’s Jim Harbaugh — though he won’t be at the game — wants to prove that his program is the best in the conference and that sign-stealing had nothing to do with their recent rise.
  • This very well might be Harbaugh’s final home game as his alma mater’s head coach, either because he wants to jump back to the NFL, or the threat of multiple looming NCAA violations necessitates it.
  • These two guys absolutely hate each other.

What Is at Stake Historically in the 2023 Ohio State vs. ❌ichigan Game?​

  • This is the final season of the Big Ten’s divisional lineup. So, starting in 2024, Ohio State and TTUN can meet in back-to-back weeks, first in the regular season finale and then in the conference title game. Therefore, this is officially the end of an era when it comes to the importance of The Game.
  • With the CFP expanding to 12 teams next season, it will be far easier for the loser of this game to receive a berth into the playoffs. So, again, the end of an era in the rivalry.
  • If Ohio State wins, they will forever have the ability to dismiss the 2021 and 2022 losses, especially if the NCAA vacates the Harboys’ wins. Since they still shouldn’t count those games as wins, that would put the Buckeyes’ winning streak at nine games, and OSU would not have lost to their rivals since 2011.
  • If the Fighting Ferrets win, it would be the first time that they would have posted three consecutive wins in the rivalry since 1995-97.

What Is at Stake for the Fans in the 2023 Ohio State vs. ❌ichigan Game?​

NCAA Football: Penn State at Ohio State
Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports
  • Bragging rights for the next calendar year
  • The validation of their increasingly insane online rhetoric
  • For many fans, their entire personalities are based on the outcome of this game.
  • The ability for some fans to continue their unhinged conspiracy theories and history-rewriting fanfiction.
  • The amount of hate between the most vocal members of these two fan bases has always been uncomfortably high, but over the past month — as there has been a new sign-stealing revelation every other day — the intensity between the two camps seems to have only intensified. With tin-foil hat conspiracy theories on both sides of the proverbial aisle, the animosity feels like it has grown from the typical levels of quasi-performative “sports-hate” to IRL venom where if a dude wearing scarlet and gray encounters a Michigan Man in a dark alley, I might put money on neither of them ever emerging.

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