We rarely dwell on the game before The Game.
Ohio State's annual slates feature a bunch of opponents followed by a self-contained, one-game season that finishes off the schedule. That second-to-last game is a necessary contest; the Buckeyes have to play someone the week before Michigan.
While the SEC openly allows its teams to sweep for mines the Saturday prior to their rivalry games, the Big Ten still does not permit that. That said, Ohio State has been largely fortunate during that penultimate week: the past two seasons it's gotten Indiana in Columbus.
Prior to that it was at eventual 8-6 B1G champions unranked Wisconsin and hosting Penn State in the throes of the Sandusky tragedy being revealed. It lost that game, but remember - winning anything felt impossible in 2011.
In 2009 and 2010 they faced Iowa with championship stakes, but that's still a program that has beaten the Buckeyes just four times in 55 years. From 2005-2008 the two Illinois schools occupied the week Ohio State players are traditionally forced reassure the media no really, we aren't looking ahead to Michigan even when they are, like in 2007 when the Illini shocked them at home.
Those half-lies won't make an appearance this season. Six days prior to boarding a bus for Ann Arbor the Buckeyes will host the strongest and deepest B1G program outside of Columbus - and the stakes should be historically high.
That's because Senior Day will be a rematch of last year’s de facto Big Ten championship, which itself was a rematch of the previous year’s actual title game. This particular Michigan State edition could realistically be the strongest visitor to enter the Horseshoe since eventual BCS champion Texas in 2005, with apologies to Michigan the following season.
It’s almost certain to be the fourth-consecutive OSU-MSU game graced by the set of ESPN College Gameday, giving it the trimmings and spotlight such a spectacle deserves. The winner should have the East tiebreaker in-hand heading into the final regular season Saturday, so the title game ticket might just be punched by that evening in Columbus.
OHIO STATE WILL HAVE to peak for five consecutive games IN ORDER TO REPEAT AS NATIONAL CHAMPIONS.
Urban Meyer has said the Spartans ripped away their dream in 2013 when they defeated the Buckeyes in Indy. That bumped them from the BCS title game to the Orange Bowl; as significant of a postseason downgrade as Ohio State has had since Michigan abruptly sent it from Pasadena to San Diego in 1993.
The favor was returned last season but the runway was forgiving, meaning there actually was a runway: Ohio State still had to visit Minneapolis after East Lansing and then host the Hoosiers before playing Michigan and heading to Indianapolis. Michigan State got Maryland, Rutgers and Penn State. There was time for stranger things to happen.
They won't get to happen in 2015. This postseason essentially begins Nov. 21.
Putting it all together, if the Buckeyes want to repeat as national champions they'll have to peak for five consecutive games to end the season: Michigan State, at Michigan, the B1G Championship and two playoff games. Five daunting elimination matches in a row against no fewer than four highly-ranked teams plus the one that always matters most.
Even top seeds in the NCAA tournament get a relatively easy path to the Sweet Sixteen. Those basketball champions have to win six straight; these Buckeyes would have to win five without anything remotely close to a gimme.
Put a different way: Any crying from Waco or Fort Worth this time around in the event of similar records - with their six bye weeks, chickenshit non-conference scheduling and still no championship game - should be promptly received with condescending laughter, again.
Losing to Michigan State means losing the division. Losing the division means no B1G championship game. Dreams are going to be ripped away again this season, and that will happen to one of the two top teams in the conference on the third Saturday of November - which is historically when Ohio State and big brother have engaged in manufacturing nightmares for each other.
But wait, there's more: Ohio State plays 10 times prior to Michigan State. Football teams can barely stay healthy for two games, let alone 10. The Buckeyes will need to enter what will hopefully be a five-game stretch run into the postseason in relatively good health and chances are you are brimming with false confidence, so prepare yourself for some cruel reality.
Dreams WILL be ripped away this season FOR one of two teams on the third Saturday of November.
What happened on the way to the 2014 championship was a fairy tale. The Buckeyes cannot lose eight guys off the top of their depth chart again and still cruise to another title. The three-quarterback thing going on in Columbus is unprecedented. Don't fool yourself into thinking that's normal or indefinitely sustainable.
So if you're still wondering why Urban chose The Grind as the sequel to The Chase, now you know: he saw what the final third of the schedule looked like, and it all starts with Sparty. Prepare yourself now for personnel decisions during games 1-10 that you may not immediately understand. It's all part of the plan the grind.
What might be different this time around – hello, Hokies – is the urgency for style points: Ohio State finally earned the benefit of the doubt in December and January and owns it until it relinquishes it, which means they probably won't be required to vaporize anybody by 59 points late in the season to pay their past debts.
The flip side is that the Buckeyes are the hunted this year. They relished being underdogs in East Lansing, Indianapolis, New Orleans and Dallas but probably won't be afforded that advantage during the 2015 season.
So Ohio State's participation in two additional games will hinge on what transpires Nov. 21 in Columbus, which will also be the final home appearances for the matriculating seniors as well as several juniors before they hit the road for, hopefully, four more. And while Michigan State marks the beginning of what they dream will be another memorable postseason run, the Buckeyes won't have any time to savor what they aim to accomplish that afternoon.
They'll have to immediately turn their focus to the Wolverines, as they always do. It's Jim Harbaugh's first Ohio State-Michigan game since 1986, and the last Michigan coach to lose his home debut against Ohio State was Harry Kipke. That was 86 years and 10 coaches ago. [Ed. If you don't count Rich Rodriguez, which I unforgivably did]
Nothing will come easy, which just makes it that much better. The Buckeyes won't be tempted to peek ahead on the schedule this November, but they won't be given any luxuries following their highly-anticipated showdown with the formidable Spartans either.
They'll still need to win The Game after the game.
