The tide has turned in the Ohio State, Michigan football battle. After the Buckeyes went on an eight-game winning streak over the Wolverines from 2012-2019, Michigan has defeated Ohio State four-straight times since 2021. Michigan dominated in the trenches the past four seasons, and even with a much-less talented roster in 2024, the Wolverines did the unthinkable in Ohio Stadium as a 20-point underdog. Michigan went into Columbus and took down the eventual national champions, 13-10.

Ohio State went on to win the national title in the new 12-team College Football Playoff. But when the 2025 season starts up, the lead-up to ‘The Game’ will be talked about on a weekly basis. Sherrone Moore and his new five-star QB Bryce Underwood will get the Buckeyes in Ann Arbor in 2025, and Ryan Day still has to show he can get that monkey off his back. Right now, plenty of analysts all have the same mindset: ‘Can’t predict Ohio State to win that game until they can prove it can.’

ESPN’s David Hale is in a similar boat. In ESPN’s ‘100 days to college football….’, Hale predicts Michigan to beat Ohio State for the fifth year in a row.

“The Buckeyes are national champions. Last year’s team was elite, and this year’s could be just as good. There’s no reason to be anything but joyous in Columbus,” Hale wrote. “Only … the fine folks from that state up north do have something of a trump card. Michigan’s four straight wins over Ohio State make for some pretty good bragging rights, even if the playoff trophy resides at the Horseshoe. Last year’s astonishing Buckeyes loss might’ve cost Ryan Day his job had the playoff not expanded to 12 and given Ohio State a second bite at the apple. And so, when this year’s game comes around on Nov. 29, the buzz won’t be about Ohio State’s 2025 championship game win. It will be about the four straight losses, and that’s an awfully big monkey now living on Day’s back. So, we won’t be too shocked if that dark cloud looms so large that the Buckeyes stumble yet again thanks to all of the outside noise. Would the Ohio State faithful be OK with a fifth straight loss to Michigan if it was followed by a second straight national title?”

Michigan vs. Ohio State is arguably the greatest rivalry in all of sports. Duke-North Carolina, Red Sox-Yankees, and Celtics-Lakers are a few others, but you can make the argument that when the Wolverines and Buckeyes face off on Thanksgiving weekend — everyone tunes in. Which is why that should usually be a top-five game to watch every single year, right?

Not this year, according to ESPN’s Bill Connelly. In the same article as Hale predicted Michigan to beat OSU, Connelly ranked the top 10 games to watch this upcoming season. He put ‘The Game’ at No. 10 on the list. Games like Boise State-Notre Dame, Texas A&M-Notre Dame, and Montana State-Montana all ranked higher than the Big Ten powers.

“The Buckeyes couldn’t lose a fifth straight to the Wolverines … right?,” Connelly wrote.

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