COLUMBUS – The Buckeyes have less than a week to bounce back from their first loss in two dozen football games and prepare for the annual showdown with That Team Up North.
No. 8 Ohio St. (10-1, 6-1 Big Ten) at No. 12/13 Michigan (9-2, 6-1), Nov. 28, Noon/ABC
The 132 yards of total offense by Ohio State in Saturday’s 17-14 loss to Michigan State was the least ever by an Urban Meyer-coached team and the coach was in back-to-the-drawing-board mode afterwards.
“We’ve got to get a couple of first downs and start finding a way to complete a pass and beat our rival,” he said. ”We’ve gotta fix some obvious problems.”
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The major college football polls look a lot different than last week’s following Saturday’s losses by Ohio State and Oklahoma State.
Clemson remains No. 1 in both the Associated Press Top 25 and the Amway coaches’ poll, with Alabama now No. 2.
The Iowa Hawkeyes were the clear beneficiaries of the Buckeyes’ undoing, leaping from No. 5 to No. 3, followed by Notre Dame and Oklahoma.
The Buckeyes fell to No. 8 in both polls, the Spartans to sixth, and the Wolverines to 12th in the AP poll, 13th in the coaches’ survey.
The Big Ten East Division title race is still up in the air. Michigan State can earn at least a share of the title and advance to the Big Ten Championship Game with a victory over Penn State in East Lansing Saturday.
But, if the Nittany Lions defeat the Spartans, the winner of the Ohio State-Michigan game will earn the outright title and the trip to Indianapolis.