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Michigan Wolverines vs. Ohio State Buckeyes is the 4th most bet on game heading into Saturday with Ohio State getting most of the action as a huge -20 ½ point favorite at Sportsinteraction.com
No one on the roster has ever experienced a loss to the Wolverines, Yahoo Sports points out.
As a result, the Buckeyes have a rare opportunity at history-no team has ever won five straight in this rivalry. Given Michigan's 3-8 record, this OSU team would seem to have a pretty good shot at a high five. But don't expect the coaches and players to be dreaming about history just yet.
"I know they know the importance of this ballgame, and they're going to play better than they've ever played," coach Jim Tressel said. "I also know the character that transition builds. We're at the end of the year and they've had a lot of lessons and a lot of things that some went their way and some didn't. I know they've got good players, I know they've got good coaches."
Ohio State opened as a 19-point favorite, equaling the line before the 1962 game, when the Bucks also entered as the favorites by the same margin. The Bucks won that game, 28-0. Seven years later, though, the Buckeyes entered the 1969 game as 17-point favorites. It was what Woody Hayes considered his best team of all time, but it was also Bo Schembechler's first season in Ann Arbor.
Michigan pulled the upset, 24-12, in what is considered the biggest upset in the history of this storied rivalry. A Michigan victory this weekend, in Rich Rodriguez's first season, would equal the magnitude of that game 39 years ago.
"I think this is the greatest rivalry in college football. I think that's what makes this particularly dangerous this time around," Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee said. "I think that people can assume too much. I believe this, and I've seen it so many times with college rivalries, and that is when it comes to a rivalry, every rule book should be thrown out and everything that you're thinking should be thrown out. This will be a great football game and we will be in for a titanic struggle."
The problem here for gamblers looking to get down on Ohio State is that the Wolverines have never lost against this rival by more than the current spread of +20 ½ points over the last 10 games. They have not lost by more than this number over the last 4 games of this season either.
It is difficult to bet on Ohio State based on this data and we sure wouldn't recommend a wager on the abysmal Wolverines either.
Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com
