This is probably the wrong week to ask the question, but has this game gotten too big? We know all about Woody and Bo, and the gold pants Buckeyes players are awarded for winning, and the ceremonial burning of stained sofas by Ohio State students, win or lose. Ohio State vs. Michigan has more rituals associated with it than a house call by a Haitian witch doctor. But is it too much?

Consider that for the last two years, the OSU players have told us repeatedly that beating Michigan defines your season, your career, your life. It is everything. But if “everything” occurs in late November, what do you play like in the first week of January -- everything minus something? If beating Michigan is the pinnacle, there has to be a valley on the other side, and it’s been the Great Valley lately.

Consider too, poor John Cooper. He won 70 percent of his games at OSU, but to this day wears the scarlet letter “L” for loser due to his dismal 2-10-1 record against Michigan. Quick -- how did he do in the bowls? Nobody knows, and nobody cares because he couldn’t beat Michigan. It’s one game out of 12 or 13, but in Buckeyes math, it means more than the sum total of the rest.