Saturday's rivalry game between undefeated No. 1 Ohio State and No. 15 Michigan is about more than just bragging rights. The Buckeyes have been atop the AP poll for 13 consecutive weeks, and the defending College Football Playoff champs are in line to appear in the Big Ten Championship game in Indianapolis, against No. 2 Indiana. Michigan, though, is 7-1 in the Big Ten, tied for second with Oregon, and still have a shot at heading to Indianapolis instead of Ohio State.
The Big Ten has noticed as much, releasing a list of potential tiebreaker scenarios that could all theoretically play out – and they all begin with a Michigan win in Ann Arbor on Saturday.
Update: No. 2 Indiana defeated Purdue, 56-3, on Friday. As a result, Indiana will now await the outcomes of Michigan-Ohio State and Oregon-Washington to find out who they'll play in next week's Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis.
A Michigan win against Ohio State makes both teams 8-1 in Big Ten games, and Michigan, as the head-to-head victor, would hold the tiebreaker between the two. In this scenario, Indiana continues on, likely as the new No. 1 in both the conference and college football, while Oregon would now be 7-2 in conference play, as they already lost to Indiana on Oct. 11. This takes them out of the running for Dec. 6's Big Ten Championship game when paired with Michigan's W, setting up Indiana vs. Michigan.
Ohio State vs. Michigan is obviously getting a lot of the attention in terms of difficulty of opponent here for both sides – Purdue hasn't won a Big Ten matchup yet, and is 2-9 overall, so that checks out – but Washington is 8-3 and was ranked No. 24 in the nation in the Nov. 3 poll, and, while not in the top 25 any longer, is still receiving
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