NCAA Football Columbus 1

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The fourth quarter of The Game begins with Ohio State ahead of Michigan 14-3. Michigan is competing on defense, but you can tell they're wearing down against Chris Wells and the Buckeyes' offensive front. The key to this quarter will be Michigan's ability to make a stop here and set freshman quarterback Ryan Mallett up with some field position early in the quarter. Michigan's defense did make that stop early in the fourth. Just 45 seconds into the fourth, Michigan is forced to punt after Todd Boeckman threw incomplete in the face of pressure on third-and-nine. Greg Mathews broke off a nice punt return that started with what looked like an ill-advised decision to pick up a bouncing punt just inside Michigan territory. The 27-yard runback set up Michigan at the Ohio State 34, but tOSU is challenging and saying Mathews went out of bounds about a dozen yards ahead of where the ball was spotted. Now, it's up to Mallett and the offense. If you're just joining us, Chad Henne's bad shoulder rendered him relatively useless, and he was lifted in the third quarter. He went off and then came back to the sideline, and he's throwing on the sideline, looking like he intends to return to the game. In fact, Henne joined Michigan's sideline huddle, only to be followed by head coach Lloyd Carr. The review showed Mathews stepped out at the Ohio State 46, but that's still good field position. Henne is indeed back. Just 10 of 25 for 60 yards, he threw deep in Mario Manningham's direction on first down, and Manningham couldn't come up with it near the goal line.

There was a lot of talk about the long layoff between the Ohio State / Michigan game and the Rose Bowl and BCS Title game, and it's looking like the Big Ten might actually do something about it.

Lloyd Carr has been the biggest proponent of moving the game to the first week of December, but Jim Tressel really isn't a fan of the idea:

"I wouldn't like at all the option of playing the week after Thanksgiving, because I think that's one of the things that's a real plus when you play in the Big Ten as a studentathlete is you train all summer long and you know you play a hard season.

"But you know what? You're going to have a Thanksgiving (at home). And for as hard as our guys work, I think that's a real plus for them. I wouldn't want to kick the season backwards."

As a fan I could really care less. I certainly wouldn't be opposed to seeing Ohio State's season extended a couple of weeks since it would make the season feel longer, but in the end the amount of football I get to see won't change unless a game is added somewhere.

Tressel makes a great point that Thanksgiving at home is a great bonus for the players, but in the end the Big Ten will probably have to make a move, and I'm not sure this is the one to make. At some point won't a Big Ten title game make sense? I realize that it'd be a terrible move tradition wise, and I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I can't help but be excited thinking about the possibility. Big Ten basketball finally caved in to having a league tournament. Football will eventually do something similar when it comes to a title game, and I think the league will be better for it.

More: Date with Michigan might be moved - Columbus Dispatch