Eleven Warriors

What a great win last night!  I was very impressed with the effort from the Scarlet and Gray.  After the victory I was thinking about the Buckeyes' split versus the top teams in the conference.  The Buckeyes have gone 1-1 versus each of the top four teams outside of our favorite ballers, and of course the pending the result vs. Illinois.  I was curious how our record stacked up against the other teams we love to hate, so I took some time on my day off to look at the records of the top seven, top five, and top four teams.  Hope you enjoy.  Let me know if you spot any errors.

Within the Top Seven

Vs Team	Ohio State	Indiana	Michigan	Michigan State	Wisconsin	Minnesota	Illinois	Overall	Percentage
Ohio State	X	1-1	1-1	1-1	1-1	1-0	0-1	5-5	.500
Indiana	1-1	X	1-0	2-0	0-1	1-1	0-1	5-4	.555
Michigan	1-1	0-1	X	1-1	0-1	1-0	2-0	5-4	.555
Michigan State	1-1	0-2	1-1	X	1-0	1-1	1-0	5-5	.500
Wisconsin	1-1	1-0	1-0	0-1	X	1-1	2-0	6-3	.667
Minnesota	0-1	1-1	0-1	1-1	1-1	X	1-1	4-6	.400
Illinois	1-0	1-0	0-2	0-1	0-2	1-1	X	3-6	.333

 

Within Top Five

Vs Team	Ohio State	Indiana	Michigan	Michigan State	Wisconsin	Overall	Percentage
Ohio State	X	1-1	1-1	1-1	1-1	4-4	.500
Indiana	1-1	X	1-0	2-0	0-1	4-2	.667
Michigan	1-1	0-1	X	1-1	0-1	2-4	.333
Michigan State	1-1	0-2	1-1	X	1-0	3-4	.429
Wisconsin	1-1	1-0	1-0	0-1	X	3-2	.600

 

Within Top Four

Vs Team	Ohio State	Indiana	Michigan	Michigan State	Overall	Percentage
Ohio State	X	1-1	1-1	1-1	3-3	.500
Indiana	1-1	X	1-0	2-0	4-1	.800
Michigan	1-1	0-1	X	1-1	2-3	.400
Michigan State	1-1	0-2	1-1	X	2-4	.333

 

Remaining Games within Top Seven:

Ohio State vs. Illinois

Indiana vs. Michigan

Michigan State vs. Wisconsin

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I was reading responses in a forum earlier regarding the age old argument that Michigan leads the all-time series vs. Ohio State, although Ohio State has owned that team up north over the last decade and in fact has been the dominant team in the modern era.  So I decided to spend my Sunday morning productively by reviewing the win/loss record in THE Game, especially since 1950 which was the end of the leather helmet era in college football.  I also dug a little further to find other relevant statistics.

With full disclosure, I used Wikipedia to gather the information presented below.  I was careful, often checking twice, but didn't want to spend my entire day on this little project, so feel free to check for accuracy.  Also, it's unclear when the vacated season is included or excluded on Wikipedia, so that could have a slight impact on the info presented below.  Again, feel free to check for accuracy.  I'll try to make corrections.

Hopefully this will help all of you defend the Scarlet and Gray!

The results show that Ohio State has definitely been the dominant team since 1950, but it's been a pretty even match up overall, as the greatest rivalry in all of sports should be.

THE GAME

Ohio State v Michigan Statistics (from Wikipedia)

Prior to 1918, Michigan pretty much owned the Buckeyes, going 12-0-2, between 1897-1912.

Because of this stretch, Michigan holds the all-time series lead 58-44-6.

The first meeting of OSU and Michigan as members of the Big Ten was in 1918.

Michigan won that meeting, but in 1919 Ohio State returned the favor, splitting the 1910’s, 1-1 (as members of the Big Ten).

The overall record since 1918 is 46-44-4, in Michigan’s favor, but just barely!  Urbs will right this wrong!

Since the end of the leather helmet era (using 1950 as the cut), the overall record is 33-30-2, Advantage, THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY.

Record by Decade:

Decade	Ohio State	Michigan	Tie
1920s	4	6*
1930s	5	5
1940s	2	6*	2
1950s	5	5
1960s	7*	3
1970s	5*	4	1
1980s	4	6*
1990s	2	7*	1
2000s	8*	2
2010s	2~	1

*Won the decade (OSU 3 and current, UM 4, tied 2)

~Current leader

 

Other Relevant Statistics

Total National Championships Claimed

Ohio State	7	1942, 1954, 1957, 1961, 1968, 1970, 2002 Number of NC since 1950 = 6
Michigan	11	1901*, 1902*, 1903*, 1904*, 1918, 1923, 1932, 1933, 1947, 1948, 1997 Number of NC since 1950 = 1 *Shared with Princeton, Yale, or other (I didn’t look any further for shared titles)

Total Heisman Winners

Ohio State	7*	) 1944, 1950, 1955, 1974, 1975, 1995, 2006
Michigan	3	1940, 1991, 1997

*tied for most with ND and USC

BCS Appearances and Record:

	Appearances	Record	NCG	Record
Ohio State	9	6-3	3	1-2
Michigan	5	2-3	0	0

Rose Bowl Appearances and Record

The Rose Bowl isn’t always the best measure due to Big Ten rules that didn’t allow the same team to go in consecutive years.  In addition, with the dawn of the BCS era, Ohio State played in three NCGs.  They would have likely gone to the Rose Bowl in those years.

	All-time	Record	Since 1950	Record	Last
Ohio State	14	7-7	13	7-6	2010 (W)
Michigan	20	8-12	18	6-12	2007 (L)

Big Ten Champions/Co-Champions:

	All-time	Since 1950	Last
Ohio State	34	26	2009
Michigan	42	23	2004