Michigan-Ohio State Line

Readers familiar with this blog will recall my recent love letter of sorts to the Michigan Wolverines, fuelled more by their exorbitant odds at one betting company rather than any allegiance or connection with Ann Arbor.

Since that article, Michigan lost their biggest game of the season on Sunday in Indiana, relinquishing their number one seed less than a week after claiming the prize for the first time in more than 20 years.

Today Michigan have a chance to atone for Sunday’s loss against further quality opposition, this time welcoming in 10^th ranked Ohio State.

It’ll be the first time these two have ever met with both ranked within the top 10.

The logical narrative is a golden chance for Michigan to atone for losing their number one seed by defeating a fierce rival in front of their adoring fans.

And it’s my opinion that the odds makers might have signed up too enthusiastically to that narrative, installing the Wolverines as a 7.5 point favourite which in my mind is far too high.

Under Coach John Beilein the Wolverines have fared quite poorly against Ohio State and hold a 3-11 record against the Buckeyes over the last 6 seasons. Of those 14 encounters, Michigan has cleared the handicap they’ve been imposed with tonight just twice.

Ohio State is now starting to find their groove and have moved to 17-4 record following their weekend defeat of Nebraska. They’ve won 6 of their last 7 and have moved back into the nation’s top 10 for the first time in 6 weeks. Of their 21 matches this season they’ve failed to get within 7.5 points of opponents on just 2 occasions.

I think the Buckeyes will cover tonight while I thought the line for tonight’s game should have been more around the 3.5-4 margin. The Buckeyes match up well with Michigan having beaten them by 3 in their most recent encounter in mid January. For the Wolverines to overturn that result by at least 10 points tonight will be a big ask.