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But to Ohio State – or at least to its fans and its marching band – the game was a pep rally. Penn State coach Bill O'Brien admitted as much a few days later. "In order to have a rivalry, you have to win, " he said, looking back on the Buckeyes' 63-14 romp. "We've lost two years in a row to them. I think they have one rival – Michigan – and that's the way it goes. " But if Ohio State isn't Penn State's rival, who is? Michigan? Michigan State? Wisconsin? Iowa? Do the Nittany Lions even have a rival after more than two decades as Big Ten members? Do they need one? Those are open questions as the Lions get set to wrap up their 21st conference season with a game Nov. 30 at Wisconsin. The Badgers rank among the league's elite teams year after year, but they don't have the kind of intangible connection with Penn State that would transform them from an opponent into a rival. Ohio State comes closer, but there, too, something's missing. "There will never be a rivalry between Penn State and Ohio State that matches Ohio State-Michigan," Penn State sports historian Lou Prato said. "And the reason is because Penn State's rivalry with Ohio State doesn't cover generations. Penn State's rivalry with Pitt covers generations, but not its Big Ten rivalries." COMPETITIVE BALANCE The final afternoon of the Big Ten season is a day set aside for the settling of old scores and the awarding of bragging rights. It features both a fledgling border rivalry – Nebraska-Iowa – and two traditional in-state rivalries: Indiana-Purdue and Illinois-Northwestern. There's a third instate rivalry that's a lot more contentious than the other two – Michigan-Michigan State – but the Big Ten can't stage it on the final day of the season because tradition requires that the Wolverines finish against Ohio State. As far as generations of Big Ten football fans are concerned, that's exactly how it should end. The Ohio State-Michigan game topped ESPN's list of the greatest rivalries of the 20th century, coming out ahead of Alabama-Auburn (No. 8), Red Sox-Yankees (No. 7), Maple Leafs-Canadiens (No. 5) and Ali-Frazier (No. 2). It's a game in which the hostility can be traced back to the early 19th century, when a border dispute arose between Ohio and Michigan over a 468-square-mile territory called the Toledo Strip. The dispute didn't turn into a shooting war, but the area remains a tinderbox centuries later thanks to lingering animosity between the states' most prominent college football teams. Legend has it that Woody Hayes once ran out of gas while on an out-of-state recruiting trip and pushed his car across the Ohio border so that he wouldn't have to fuel up in Michigan. True story? No one seems to know. More to the point, no one seems to care. The Ohio State-Michigan game has so much history that the lines between fact and fiction have long since blurred, the result being a rivalry that sometimes seems more like mythology than sports. But as O'Brien noted, the real hallmark CENTER STAGE Meyer and O'Brien talk at midfield prior to Penn State's game at Ohio State in October. The Buckeyes' 63-14 victory extended Meyer's unbeaten streak at the school to 20 games. Steve Manuel

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