With the final week of regular season college football over, a lot of rival teams tend to play each other in their final regular season game. Very few games hold as much importance in the college football world as the Ohio State vs Michigan rivalry. Nicknamed “The Game”, the two power-house schools started playing each other annually in 1989. In the 34 games played between the two teams, Michigan has won 19 of them giving them, the slightest edge in the history of this rivalry.
Heading into this year’s matchup both teams were heading in very different directions. Ohio State was ranked the 2nd best team in the nation, coming with a 10-1 record, with their only loss coming from the best team in the nation (Oregon). With a win, Ohio state would secure their name in the Big 10 championship game and secure a bye in the college football playoffs.
Michigan came into this game with much lower expectations, despite winning the national championship last year, the wolverines would see their head coach Jim Harbaugh move to the NFL to coach the LA Chargers; to add insult to injury the wolverines would also lose a lot of talent to the NFL draft. Still, everyone assumed that the historically successful Michigan would remain ranked and still be a threat to the new teams in the expanding big 10. Michigan would start the season on good feet, winning their first game 30-10 and being ranked 9th in the nation. Sadly, that would be the highest rank Michigan would receive this season. By the week of the rivalry Michigan was 6-5 and fighting for a bowl berth.
Most people in the country had picked Ohio State to win the game, given their superior talent on offense and defense. The fact that the game was being played at Ohio State would fan the flames for a projected Ohio State blowout. But there was one effect that nobody paid any attention to, the conditions. The game was played in the freezing cold on a windy day, which served as quite the problem for the Buckeyes, as their elite passing offense was unable to break through Michigan’s defense. Michigan’s run-first mentality would serve them well in a close game, allowing them to control the clock and limit costly turnovers. When all was said and done, Michigan would pull off the upset winning 13-10.
But what was most shocking about the game happened after the final whistle. After the game where players and coaches from both teams were shaking hands and congratulating each other on a good game, a Michigan player would plant the Michigan flag in the middle of the Ohio State field, causing an immediate scuffle between the players in the middle of the field. While fighting during a football game isn’t uncommon it was the length of the fight that turned heads. The whole fight lasted 10 minutes with state police being called and eventually macing the players to try to end the conflict.
When the dust settled, both teams were fined 100k for each incident, resulting in both teams losing millions of dollars from the game. The loss caused Ohio state to lose their shot at the Big 10 championship, and they dropped a couple ranks, while Michigan didn’t really gain anything outside of bragging rights.
