It is now officially Beat M*ch*g*n Week! Get prepped for a must-win edition of The Game

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Now that the No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes have wrapped up their 42-9 victory over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, the calendar officially has flipped from Week 13 of the college football season to Beat M*ch*g*n Week! It is time to purge all of the blue from your wardrobe, put red Xs over every visible M on your social media profiles, and remove the word Michigan from your vocabulary.

While this year’s installment of The Game likely won’t impact whether or not Ohio State makes it to the College Football Playoff, there is still much on the line for both teams. Looking at the good guys, a win guarantees their first trip to Indianapolis for a Big Ten Championship Game since 2020. If the Buckeyes were to lose to their rivals again, they would have to wait and see how the tiebreakers shook out across the conference.

For the Corn and Blue, sitting at No. 18 in the CFP rankings, if they want to play their way into the tournament, they will at least have to beat the Buckeyes next week, and might need to follow it up with a conference title to boot.

Of course, losing for a fifth-straight year to the Winged Helmet Wingnuts will not endear Ryan Day to Buckeye fans who have largely repented from their previous years’ animosity toward the now national championship-winning head coach.

Be Prepared

• Game Time: Saturday, Nov. 29 at 12 noon ET
• Broadcast Details: FOX | Broadcast crew: Gus Johnson, Joel Klatt, Jenny Taft
• FanDuel Sportsbook installed the Buckeyes as 13.5-point favorites as of the writing of this article. That is the second-largest betting margin in the rivalry over the past 10 years. Of course, last year’s game opened at 23.5 points in favor of OSU, and we know how that went. In 2020, OSU was a 31.5-point favorite… which I’m sure had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Jim Harbaugh canceled The Game, citing “COVID concerns.” I mean, we all know that Jimbo isn’t afraid to cheat to save his job, so — at least for rivalry week — I feel comfortable calling him a liar.
• The Buckeyes are -610 on the moneyline, and the over/under total has been set at 44.5 points.
• We will be bringing you two or three different podcast episodes every single day in the lead-up to the game, so make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
• This list is a couple of years old, so I have added some since, but here is a collection of nicknames for TTUN that you can use without having to call them by the name of their state. We’ve also got some decent ones for their former coach, too.

What’s at Stake?

• Heading into The Game, Ohio State is 11-0 on the season, having won every game since the season opener against then-No. 1 Texas by at least 18 points. While the Skunk Bears (8-2) play Maryland (4-6) this afternoon at 4 p.m. ET.
• With the Buckeyes’ victory over Rutgers, Ohio State is guaranteed a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game should they beat the Corn and Blue next week. As the top-ranked team in the country, OSU is essentially guaranteed a spot in the CFP; the only question would be whether it would be as the Big Ten champion or as an at-large selection. If they do earn an at-large berth, the chances are likely slim that they would receive a first-round bye, meaning that they would otherwise host a first-round matchup in Ohio Stadium in late December.
• Depending on what happens across the conference today and next weekend, Michigan could still make the B1G Title Game, but they would obviously have to beat OSU to make that possible. The Pompous Princes have no shot at the playoff without beating the Buckeyes, so Ryan Day’s squad can not only get revenge for the past four years, but they could also, effectively end TTUN’s season on Saturday.
• The FanDuel SportsBook currently has the Buckeyes as the betting favorite to win the national championship at +190. Indiana is in second place at +500, followed by Texas A&M (+800), Notre Dame (+950), and Georgia (+1000). Oregon (+1200) is currently in sixth place, and Michigan entered the day in 14th at +12500.

Here are some quick facts to get you ready for the 2025 edition of The Game:

• Though the Weasels own an all-time record in the rivalry of 62-51-6, since Woody Hayes took over the Buckeye program in 1951, they are 31-40-2. Furthermore, since Jim Tressel became the OSU coach in 2001, they are 6-17 in the series.
• OSU is 51-51-4 against TTUN in Big Ten Conference games.
• M*ch*g*n is 4-5 against Ohio State since Jim Harbaugh was named the Maize and Blue head coach.
• Wolverines are members of the weasel family… which checks out.
• While everyone loves Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, the actual comic book version of the character is a short, stumpy 5-foot-3 asshole who nobody likes. Sure, he’s ferocious, but he constantly tries to steal another man’s girlfriend and is an absolutely awful father to nearly all of his more than 15 children. In fact, at different times in the comics, he has killed every single one of his biological children except for Erista, the son of Gahck, the tribal chief of the Tribe of Fire in the Savage Land. So, whether it is in the animal kingdom, the X-Men Universe, or in the Big Ten, all wolverines generally suck.

Looking Ahead

• The current forecast shows a high of 35° F next Saturday afternoon under mostly cloudy skies in Ann Arbor. There is a 24% chance of precipitation with winds coming from the west at 12 mph.
• I think that it is a pretty strong assumption that FOX’s “Big Noon Kickoff” will be in Ann Arbor next weekend, even though you would have to pay me a considerable amount of money to watch that garbage. Given all of the SEC teams they have to pump up to get into the CFP, I doubt that ESPN’s “College GameDay” will be on hand, though. Which is fine, because I don’t watch that junk either. The Big Ten Network’s “BTN Tailgate” might very well be on hand — wait, do they still do that show?

We will be covering the rivalry game all week here at Land-Grant Holy Land, so make us your home for all of your Corn and Blue hate from now until next Saturday.

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