Mike Celizic

The teams are Ohio State and Michigan. The sport is football. And it doesn’t get any better than that, not in any sport, not anywhere.

Don’t even try to argue that there’s a college rivalry — or even a pro one — better than the one that’s being renewed on Saturday in Columbus. You may as well try to argue stripes off a wolverine or the eye spot off a buckeye.

The Yankees and Red Sox are a pretty intense rivalry, but how often are both teams very, very good at the same time? Lately they have been, but not historically. The Lakers and Celtics were this good for a generation, but that, too, ended. In the NFL, rivalries ebb and flow with the constantly churning rosters.

I heard Dick Vitale the other day on ESPN radio saying that as good as Ohio State-Michigan is, Duke-UNC in hoops is better. Far be it from me to suggest that Dickie V might inadvertently slip into hyperbole when a sport he seems to favor is being discussed, but he’s missing it on this one.

The Blue Devils and Tar Heels play at least twice a year, often three, when you count the ACC tournament. And, while the games are fiercely contested, when they’re over, both teams usually go to the NCAA Tournament along with 63 other teams, all with the same shot to win the national title. You can’t play two or three times a year with none of the games being the difference between life and death without losing something.

That’s what elevates Ohio State-Michigan beyond the other great rivalries — the teams get one shot at it and there’s usually something really, really big at stake. If it’s not a shot at the national title, it’s the difference between a BCS bowl and a consolation bowl. It’s usually also for the Big Ten title, a distinction that means a great deal in the Midwest.

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This year, it’s for a trip to the BCS championship game and it matches the top two teams in the country. Tickets are going for $1,500 each. Columbus police are calling in reinforcements to prevent a repeat of 2002, when Ohio State students celebrated their win like hooligans, starting fires, engaging in senseless vandalism and embarrassing their school on a national stage.

Ohio State hopes it can get another victory without the execrable behavior afterwards. This time, they want all the highlights to be about the game, not what happens afterwards.

One thing is certain — this one will set the ratings standard for this season and maybe for many more. No one who cares about sports is going to miss this one if he or she can help it.

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The greatness of both teams is a bonus this year, but in Columbus and Ann Arbor, it doesn’t matter how good the programs are. Both teams are usually good, but they have their ups and downs. Just the same, even if one team is lower than a snake’s belly in a canyon, The Game, as it’s known, can be the entire season. Michigan’s Lloyd Carr has been a pretty darned good coach, but he’s had serious problems beating Ohio State’s Jim Tressel. It was nice when Carr won a national title, but not as nice as it would be if he beat Ohio State every year.

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Bo Schembechler (who died at 77 on Friday) and Woody Hayes, the two coaching legends who elevated this rivalry to a mutual obsession, used to start coaching for the season’s final game during summer practice. Not a week went by when they didn’t do something to prepare for The Game. Win it, and you were above criticism for a year. Lose it, and no matter how well the season went, it was the stain on your resume that all great Neptune’s ocean couldn’t wash clean.

"The Ohio State-Michigan game is always the biggest game,'' Tressel said last Saturday. "It doesn't matter what the records are or what is on the table depending on the outcome. The fact that it is No. 1 versus No. 2, we think that is the way it should be.''

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