The Ohio State vs. Michigan rivalry is the historical intense college football rivalry between the University of Michigan and The Ohio State University football teams. The annual match up between the two Midwest state schools' football teams has been held at the end of their regular seasons since 1935. The annual football game was ranked by ESPN in 2000 as the greatest North American sports rivalry.

From About.com:
The Michigan game. Just mention this in Columbus and you can see emotions stir and blood pressures rise.

But why is the Ohio/Michigan rivalry one of the most intense and most well-known rivalries in the country? The Michigan vs. Ohio saga may have started in 1803.

The Toledo War
Most people don't know there was almost a war over Toledo. Toledo, Michigan, that is.

According to the Michigan Historical Museum System, Toledo, Michigan first appeared on a map in 1835. The village of Toledo and a 450-square-mile strip of land along the Michigan/Ohio border became known as the "Toledo Strip", claimed by the state of Ohio and the Michigan Territory. The original east-west state line between Ohio and Michigan was known as the Ordinance Line and was later altered by the Fulton Line and Talcott Line that ran a straight course due east of the southernmost tip of Lake Michigan to the southwestern shore of Lake Erie. (In western Lucas County there is Old State Line Rd. serving as a reminder of the Toledo War.) The state of Ohio had surveyed its' own northern border upon admission to statehood that generally followed the current Ohio/Michigan border.

The various surveys resulted in a 50-year dispute over the Toledo Strip, which was only five miles wide at the Indiana border and eight miles wide at Lake Erie. Although it has been reported that no shots were fired, Ohio and Michigan militia units were sent to the Toledo Strip between 1835 and 1837. But luck was on Ohio's side. At the time, the Compromise of 1820 allowed the admission of one slave state for one free state. Michigan and Missouri were to be admitted as states, but only when Michigan surrendered the Toledo Strip to Ohio. The reason? Probably because a Presidential election was coming up. State of Ohio residents could vote, while Michigan Territory residents could not.

While the Michigan Territory originally vowed to fight the surrender, it realized the hopelessness of the contest, and on December 14, 1836, officially conceded the Toledo Strip to Ohio. In return, the new state of Michigan was given the remainder of the unorganized Upper Peninsula by Congress. Toledo became Toledo, Ohio, and victorious Ohio governor Robert Lucas was honored with the name Lucas County, the eastern portion of the Toledo Strip.

Ohio's victory in getting the Toledo Strip may have been remembered by both sides in 1897, when OSU and the University of Michigan first faced off on the football field in Ann Arbor. Michigan was victorious in that first game, winning 34-0.

In fact, Michigan was victorious for the next 15 years. A look at the history of theOSU/Michigan football games shows Michigan won 58 times; OSU has been victorious in only 37 games, with five ties. Most rivalries are more or less 50/50 in terms of wins and losses. The game alternates annually between Columbus and Ann Arbor, but the statistics show Michigan more victorious at home and in Ohio Stadium.

But the book One Game Season:  Ohio State vs. Michigan says the "Big Game" is much more than just winning:

The 'Big Game' has decided the Big Ten championship 32 times since the contest was moved to the last Saturday in the season in 1935; on 18 of those occasions, Michigan and Ohio State settled the title between themselves. The throne atop the Big Ten, as well as a trip to the Rose Bowl, is usually the reward for a victory in this contest.

With Ohio State University known nationally as the college football capital, it's no wonder people in Central Ohio follow the Bucks with such intensity. After all, when you're named after a killer nut you have to be good. But as Coach John Cooper once said, "You can have a good season if you win the rest of your games...but you can't have a great season unless you beat Michigan." Losing to Michigan is unforgivable. Does this unforgiveness stretch back to the birth of Ohio, when we had to fight for land we thought Michigan was trying to steal? No one seems to know for sure. But "The Big Game" might just be the annual replay of the Toledo War.