It's interesting how things play out.

Ohio State and Michigan are both 6-1 in the conference.
Illinois is now 5-2, trailing by one game

Lets' look at what possible outcomes of The Game here in A2 on saturday.

If Michigan Wins
Final Conference Standing - Michigan, Illinois, Ohio St.

If Michigan Loses
Final Conference Standing - Ohio St., Michigan, Illinois

The difference due to the head-to-head tie breaker.

Michigan lost everything in the first 2 weeks of the season, we have nothing to lose and everything to win next week. Win and go to Rose bowl, lose and go to Capital one.

Ohio St. is the different story, a win gives them rose bowl berth, but a loss to Michigan would mean taking a hit in the final BCS rankings, and they probably can't get an at large bid to a BCS bowl.

but there's more, they can't even get to the Capital One bowl (with Illinois being 2nd in the conference), which means they would have to settle with the Outback bowl. think about it, you're ranked 1st in the country for 4 weeks, being the team ranked no.1 for the longest time this season. and you have to settle with an Outback bowl bid? It's going to be frustrating, definitely.

The more reason for us to stomp those buckeyes at home.

Go Blue!

P.S. thank you Iowa for keeping Illinois out of the picture.