by Bruce Hooley, Special to FOXSports.com

While the Buckeyes and Wolverines will meet Saturday in the 105th installment of a rivalry many consider the best in college football, the noon kickoff from Ohio Stadium offers none of the anticipation or intrigue many of its forerunners provided.

OSU is as much as a 20 ½-point favorite, matching the biggest point spread in series history.

That margin has been climbing all week as an inducement for bettors to embrace the 3-8 Wolverines as a dangerous underdog in the final game of Rich Rodriguez's historically horrendous first season.

No one seems to be biting, however.

Not even an Ohio kid who crossed the border to wear the winged helmet and ended up winning the 1991 Heisman Trophy.

"It's not like they were trying to learn (just) a spread offense," Howard said. "It's like they were trying to learn how to play football in some of their games, they looked so bad. This isn't Michigan. This is like Michigan Tech.''

Howard's 93-yard punt return down the far sideline at The Big House is the stuff of Ohio State-Michigan legend. He punctuated that score in a 31-3 win with an unforgettable Heisman pose in the end zone.

That's what the Ohio State-Michigan game has always been — guys making indelible plays in games of great importance, fostering legacies that last forever.

Since moving to the final weekend of the Big Ten season in 1935, the rivalry determined the Big Ten champion 43 times in 73 meetings, including nine times in the 1970s, six times in the 1980s, seven times in the 1990s and every year this decade.

OSU coach Jim Tressel is trying valiantly to label this installment the same old, same old.

"(Michigan has) perhaps the most talented defensive front that we've faced," Tressel said. "... I think Scott Schaefer, their defensive coordinator, has done a great job of giving you problems, putting pressure on you ... The one thing Michigan does, is they play until the final whistle."

Hmmm.

So Michigan has a better defensive line than USC or Penn State — which rank second and fourth, respectively, in the nation in total defense?

Well, maybe Tressel thinks so because compared to the Wolverines' yards allowed (eighth in the Big Ten), pass defense (10th in the conference) and scoring defense (also 10th), a defense that ranks sixth in the Big Ten against the run and in quarterback sacks jumps right off the film.

Tressel is correct about one thing: Michigan hasn't yet walked off the field before the final gun.

Rodriguez, who these days looks about as comfortable in his Michigan coaching garb as Rush Limbaugh at an Obama rally, is promising that won't happen Saturday.

"It's not like we're going to go down there and forfeit,'' Rodriguez said.

Granted, that's not exactly Jim Harbaugh guaranteeing a win in 1986 and then delivering the Wolverines to the Rose Bowl with a win over Ohio State, but it's as close as RichRod gets to pregame bravado.

The 2006 installment of this rivalry had a little more riding on it. (Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)

And, given what's happened to his team this year, who can blame him?

Michigan has already suffered the first eight-loss season in school history. It's also clinched the first non-bowl season in the 34 years since the Big Ten began allowing more than one of its conference members to play in the postseason.

Howard saw it all coming in March when he visited spring practice.

"I told some of my best buddies, 'Our bowl streak is in jeopardy.' " Howard said. "Everybody thought I was overreacting: 'Nah, nah, give them time, give them time.'

"I said, 'If they win six games, RichRod is one of the best coaches in college football.' Then I said, 'If they win seven, he has to be finalist for the best coach in college football. If they win eight, he is the best coach in college football.'

"I expected them to struggle. Now, there's a way to lose, and there's a way to look embarrassing."

Losing to Toledo in Ann Arbor, Michigan's first loss ever to a Mid-American Conference team, that's embarrassing.

Losing five times at home for the first time in school history, that's embarrassing.

Even for an Ohio State guy who played against Michigan, that's embarrassing.

"I just don't get any joy out of seeing (Michigan like this)," said ESPN GameDay analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who played quarterback at OSU. "I think it's awful. I think it's terrible. The rivalry is built upon the game meaning so much to both sides. When I think about being a little kid and watching that game, I think of great Ohio State and great Michigan teams, and that's the way I wish it was every year."

Some have tried to sell this installment on the history of one team shocking the other when it was heavily favored, but there's no precedent for either team ever scaling the mountain Michigan faces Saturday.

The most frequent example cited — Bo Schembechler's Wolverines stunning Woody Hayes' unbeaten and defending national champions in 1969 — doesn't wash.

While the No. 1 Buckeyes were considered unbeatable that year, Michigan entered 7-2 and ranked No. 12, and it tied OSU for the Big Ten title after posting the 24-12 upset.

That's the game which made the Ohio State-Michigan game matter beyond the Midwest, and it's occupied that lofty plane until now.

Rodriguez would be the sixth consecutive Wolverines coach to win his debut against the Buckeyes, following Bennie Oosterbaan in 1948, Bump Elliott in 1959, Schembechler in 1969, Gary Moeller in 1990 and Lloyd Carr in 1995.

But barring an upset every bit as big as Appalachian State over Michigan to begin last season, Rodriguez might be in for the biggest beating in the series since Hayes hung a 50-14 eyesore on the Maize and Blue in 1968 to prompt Elliott's ouster and Schembechler's arrival.

"Patience is the million-dollar question," Howard said. "It's kind of like asking a married man what he would do if he found his wife cheating on him. If you've never been in that situation, you really don't know how you're going to react. Michigan fans have never been in this situation, so the patience thing is a big question.

"There's no way in the world (Rodriguez) can have a season next year like he had this year and he still be in Ann Arbor. That would not happen."

Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio was Jim Tressel's defensive coordinator at Ohio State from 2001-2003, and Dantonio did a stint as an MSU assistant coach before that. Therefore, he has an ingrained dislike for the Michigan Wolverines that apparently cannot be trumped by the fact that his Spartans' only chance to get to the Rose Bowl hinges on upsetting Penn State and having Michigan upset OSU.

Asked this week if he will cheer for Michigan against the Buckeyes, Dantonio said: "I have too many friends who would not let me back in their house if I (rooted for Michigan). So ... 'Go Bucks.' "

Michigan State is in line for a Capital One Bowl berth against an SEC opponent if it loses to Penn State, Ohio State beats Michigan and the Buckeyes get a BCS at-large berth. If the Big Ten doesn't receive two BCS bids, Michigan State would slide to the Outback Bowl, where it would also play an SEC team.

Besides the Capital One and the Outback Bowls, the Big Ten has slots in the Alamo, Champs Sports, Insight and Motor City Bowls. Those games need not select in the same order as the conference standings, but they cannot take one team ahead of another if there is more than one-game difference in their records.

So, a 7-5 team can be taken ahead of an 8-4 team but not ahead of a 9-3 team. The Big Ten also does not allow its bowl partners to take a 6-6 team ahead of a 7-5 team.

Northwestern (8-3, 4-3) can record a 10-win season if it defeats visiting Illinois (5-6, 3-4) and wins its bowl game. The Wildcats haven't won 10 games since their Big Ten championship season of 1995 when head coach Pat Fitzgerald was their middle linebacker. Thirty-five games into his coaching career, he's ahead of the pace of several noteworthy predecessors. Gary Barnett, who coached NU to consecutive league titles in 1995 and 1996, was 9-25-1, while Ara Parseghian was 15-19-1. Fitzgerald is 18-17.

Illinois must win at Ryan Field to attain bowl eligibility, but that doesn't mean the Illini will play in the postseason. There are currently seven bowl-eligible teams in the Big Ten, which matches the number of bowl games with which the league has contracts. Should Illinois defeat Northwestern and the Big Ten grab two BCS berths, no team would be left without a chair when the postseason bowl music stops. But if Oregon State wins at Arizona on Saturday and home against Oregon next week, that would knock USC into the at-large pool, and it would likely trump a second Big Ten team's credentials, thus leaving a 6-6 Illinois at home.

The Big Ten's bowl partners cannot bypass a 6-6 team to select a 7-5 team, so Illinois and Wisconsin are the on-the-bubble candidates who could be bypassed. Wisconsin can eliminate that possibility with a win over Cal Poly, which is 8-1 and ranked third among Division IAA teams.

Minnesota (7-4, 3-4) has surrendered the Little Brown Jug to Michigan and Paul Bunyan's Axe to Wisconsin the past two weeks. Now, the Gophers go for the trophy giveaway triumvirate Saturday against Iowa. The winner gets Floyd of Rosedale, a bronze pig statue that dates to 1935.

The Gophers hope to avoid a fourth straight loss in their final game at the Metrodome, which gives way next year to M&T Bank Stadium.

Wide receiver Eric Decker, who sat out the loss at Wisconsin with a high ankle sprain, leads the Big Ten with 74 catches and will play against Iowa.

Purdue (3-8, 1-6) won't be going to a bowl in Joe Tiller's final season. He retires after a Saturday home game against Indiana (3-8, 1-6) in a battle for the Old Oaken Bucket.