Ohio State, Michigan can’t fall victim to dangerous lookahead spots

It is trap game season for the Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines on Saturday!

While Michigan at Ohio State will decide the Big Ten East winner, as well as the most formidable challenger to Georgia throughout the entire Power Five, they must avoid their trap games first.

Entering the penultimate week of the 2022 regular season, Ohio State and Michigan are the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the nation, respectively. The winner of The Game will be a strong and powerful force, potentially one that could give a juggernaut team like Georgia a run for its money, should they meet in the College Football Playoff. However, these rivals need to be careful on Saturday.

Michigan will host a 7-3 Illinois team in the Big House, while Ohio State will take on a 6-4 Maryland team in the Shell.

Ohio State and Michigan must avoid their proverbial trap games this weekend

While the Wolverines losing at home to the Illini is not likely, as goes for the Buckeyes falling to the Terrapins in College Park, we have seen crazier things happen across college football before. Given that the Illini and Terps are both bowl eligible teams, they could, in theory, have what it takes to pull off the monumental upsets. A favored team falling will put even more pressure on The Game…

Because the Buckeyes and Wolverines have the head-to-head tiebreaker over a two-loss Penn State Nittany Lions team, it is mathematically impossible for anybody but Michigan or Ohio State to represent the Big Ten East in Indianapolis in a few weeks. Therefore, the Wolverines or Buckeyes could lose to the Illini or Terrapins and still win the division if they beat their arch rival.

As is the case with Georgia, should either the Buckeyes or Wolverines get to their conference championship undefeated at 12-0, that might be enough to punch a ticket into the College Football Playoff, regardless of the Indianapolis outcome. However, neither team will want to leave it up to chance. Still, a 12-1 Big Ten champion is definitely making the four-team field this season.

Ultimately, Michigan has the harder pathway to get in here, as Illinois is the slightly better Week 12 opponent over what Ohio State has in Maryland. Truth be told, the only factor that matters is this year’s installment of The Game will be in Columbus. Given that Michigan won The Game a year ago and might be a better version over the 2021 team, the Buckeyes need home-field advantage.

A Week 12 slip-up is not the end of the world, but will create a sense of desperation for The Game.

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