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AP: Michigan, Ohio State To Play Final Week Of Regular Season

The Associated Press is reporting that even though Michigan and Ohio State are going to be in separate divisions, they will still play each other in the final week of the regular season.

AP: Big Ten divisions will be UM, Neb, Iowa, MSU, Minn, NW and OSU, PSU, Wisc, Ill, Pur, Ind w/ UM-OSU game as reg season finale

I suppose this is the ultimate compromise for fans and the executives at the Big Ten. While splitting up Michigan and Ohio State helps for competitive balance (based on data going back to 1993, not recently obviously) and gives the Big Ten a possibility of the Wolverines and Buckeyes playing in the Big Ten title game, keeping "The Game" at the end of the regular season appeases fans of the two teams. At the end of the day, I suppose the occasional rematch that has U-M and OSU playing in back-to-back weeks is better than the headache that comes along with moving the matchup to earlier in the season.

Personally, I still would have preferred a setup where Michigan and Ohio State were in the same division, preventing the possibility of any rematch. The Big Ten obviously didn't want that to happen, though, as they figured it would be better to split up two of their biggest brands.