Via | ESPN
It’s rare for either side of the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry to consider the outcome of another game as or more important than their annual regular-season finale. That’s undeniably the case this season as Michigan’s former quarterback returns to the rivalry, albeit nearly three decades later as a coach no longer interested in the guarantee he famously made good on as a player.
The winner of Saturday’s meeting at Michigan Stadium will go to the Big Ten championship game, but that statement comes with a significant asterisk: The fine print reads Michigan State must lose at home to Penn State roughly three hours later for either the emerging Wolverines or the defending national champion Buckeyes to play the following week.
The Spartans moved into the East Division driver’s seat with Saturday’s 17-14 win at Ohio State (10-1, 6-1), dropping the Buckeyes to eighth in the latest AP poll and putting their chances of a repeat national championship, much less a Big Ten title, very much in doubt.
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