Thanks to Ohio State's 42–13 win in Ann Arbor today – Urban Meyer's fourth victory over the Wolverines in as many tries – the Buckeyes now lead the all-time series against Michigan in Big Ten play, 47–46–41.
Michigan still holds a formidable 58–47–6 overall edge in the series, thanks to a 13–0–2 start to the rivalry, which saw the two teams meet for the first time in 1897, but since the two teams first met as Big Ten opponents in 1918 (a 14–0 win by the Wolverines), Ohio State has the series edge for only the third time ever.
| Decade | Wins | Losses | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1920s | 4 | 6 | 0 |
| 1930s | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| 1940s | 2 | 6 | 2 |
| 1950s | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| 1960s | 7 | 3 | 0 |
| 1970s | 5 | 4 | 1 |
| 1980s | 4 | 6 | 0 |
| 1990s | 2 | 7 | 1 |
| 2000s | 8 | 2 | 0 |
| 2010s | 41 | 1 | 0 |
Despite Michigan winning that first Big Ten encounter, John Wilce's Buckeyes took the next three in the series to move to 3–1 in league play against the Wolverines. From there, it was all Michigan as the Wolverines went 9–18–2 in the rivalry until Woody Hayes arrived in Columbus in 1951.
Hayes went 16–8–1 against Michigan in his first 25 tries, culminating with a 21–14 win in Ann Arbor in 1975, to give the Buckeyes their second lead in league play against the Wolverines, 28–27–3. But Bo Schembechler won his final three games against his former boss, to move Michigan back into the lead, 30–28–3.
Woody's successor, Earle Bruce, went 5–4 against Michigan, to close within one game in the league series, but John Cooper, who took over for Bruce in 1988, struggled mightily against the Wolverines, going 2–10–1.
By the time Jim Tressel took over in 2001, Michigan held a 8-game lead in Big Ten play, but Tressel quickly undid most of that, going 8–21 against Michigan.
Now, thanks to Urban Meyer's perfect 4–0 record against the Wolverines, the Buckeyes once again hold the lead in Big Ten play.
Ohio State's record against Michigan since...
- Televisions introduced (1926): 44–41–4
- The discovery of penicillin (1928): 44–39–4
- The invention of radar (1935): 39–36–4
- The completion of the first general purpose computer, ENIAC (1946): 35–30–3
- Sound barrier broken (1947): 35–29–3
- The discovery of DNA (1953): 34–25–2
- Man lands on the moon (1969): 23–20–2
- Apple II released (1977): 19–17–1
- Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989): 14–10–1
- Internet becomes available to general public (1991): 14–8–1
- Google founded (1998): 13–4
- YouTube launched (2005): 9–1
1 Ohio State vacated its 37–7 win over Michigan in 2010.
