It doesn't matter but obviously matters a lot

So. Michigan. Ohio.

For the first time in eight years (if this had blog had existed for eight years, anyway), this post does not include an obligatory reference to some very large and very disgusting number of days since Michigan last beat Ohio and an accompanying plea to do so again before I die. Unnecessary.


But here's a fun fact: It's been 727 days since Ohio beat Michigan and 1,901 days since Ohio officially beat Michigan (lol wwwhheeeee). Those numbers probably don't show up anywhere on the Columbus Dispatch website but are factual nonetheless.

Those numbers also don't really matter but kinda matter because, for the first time in a really long time, The Game isn't a game Michigan really needs to win (at least not any more than any other version of The Game since all versions of it are must-win). Since Iowa has the offensive version of Greg Robinson calling plays and Penn State's touchdowns don't count and Michigan State gets called for penalties just for being the dirtiest dirt in the history of dirt, Nebraska is going to the Big Ten title game; Michigan is going to some meh corporately sponsored bowl game in Florida against a generic SEC team (barring a crazy confluence of events that could still yield a BCS game) and has a roster full of guys who have all experienced a win over Ohio (and Michigan State and Notre Dame and everybody else) in their relatively successful careers. In that regard, the difference between 8-4 and 9-3 is negligible.

That said, 9-3 with a win over Ohio seems, like, way preferable to 8-4 with a loss to Ohio.

. . . . .

I'm just old enough to be able to vaguely remember the '95 game:


And I'm just old enough to be able to pretty accurately remember the '96 game:


Those were fun; I don't remember the satisfaction being diminished by Ohio finishing with a number of wins slightly larger than Michigan's number of wins. Good things are good by definition. Also good: The possibility that Brady Hoke will have finished his first two years at Michigan with at least 20 wins, including two over Ohio, with the byproduct being two straight 10-plus-win seasons for Michigan for the first time in ... ummm ... a while.

This is what I wrote last week:

I would like to cling to the idea that Urban Meyer is John Cooper. I would like to laugh at another awesome Ohio season becoming infinitely less awesome because of Michigan. I would like to think that Brady Hoke might own Ohio the way Jim Tressel owned Michigan (except without the CheatyPants McSweaterVest stuff). I would like to think that Michigan will have gotten back to the good ol' days of "eh nine wins whatever." I would like to hold onto my totally unrealistic hopes of a BCS at-large berth in the Fiesta Bowl, where I'd get to watch Denard be Denard one more time.

Yes. All those things. All those things for Denard. All those things for 364 days of satisfaction, plz.

BEAT OHIO.