The Ohio State Buckeyes defeated rival Michigan 30-27 in double overtime on Saturday in one of the most exciting games in the history of one of college football’s oldest and greatest rivalries. The win earned Ohio State the College Football Game of the Week honor from the United States Sports Academy for the second time this season.
With College Football Playoff implications on the line, the game between second-ranked Ohio State and third-ranked Michigan lived up to the hype it received in the national media. It was also the first time in the rivalry’s 113-game history that the teams played to overtime.
The Buckeyes trailed the third-ranked Wolverines by 10 points halfway through the third quarter before Mike Weber’s 1-yard touchdown run made the score 17-14 at the end of the third. Tyler Durbin’s 23-yard field goal tied the game at 17 with one second left in regulation.
The teams traded touchdowns in the first overtime period. After quarterback J.T. Barrett carried seven yards for an Ohio State touchdown, Michigan’s Amarah Darboh caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Wilton Speight to send the game into a second overtime period.
In the second overtime, Michigan settled for a 37-yard field goal from Kenny Allen before Curtis Samuel’s 15-yard touchdown run in the second overtime period sealed the win for the Buckeyes, who had converted a fourth-and-1 on the previous play instead of going for a potential game-tying field goal.
The game improved Ohio State’s record to 11-1, while Michigan fell to 10-2.
Previously, Ohio State won the Academy’s College Football Game of the Week honor on 17 October 2016 with a 30-23 overtime win against the Wisconsin Badgers.
A blue ribbon panel of 17 members consisting of former college football coaches and athletic directors and including Academy faculty selects the weekly winner of the Academy’s College Football Game of the Week Award by ballot. The committee is chaired by former U.S. Naval Academy athletic director Jack Lengyel. At the conclusion of the college football season, the panel selects the Academy’s College Football Game of the Year.
The College Football Game of the Year Award is part of the Academy’s Awards of Sport series, a function of the American Sport Art Museum and Archives (ASAMA), which was established as “a tribute to the artist and the athlete.”
Each year at the conclusion of the college football season painter Daniel Moore, the ASAMA 2005 Sport Artist of the Year, is commissioned by the Academy to render a painting depicting a memorable and pivotal moment to commemorate the selected College Football Game of the Year. In addition, the Academy contributes $5,000 to the winning university’s scholarship fund.
Fans are encouraged to follow the Academy’s Game of the Year process and compare their selected games of the week to the committee’s selection.
Based in Daphne, Ala., the United States Sports Academy is an independent, non-profit, accredited, special mission sports university created to serve the nation and world with programs in instruction, research, and service. The role of the Academy is to prepare men and women for careers in the profession of sports. For more information about the Academy, call (251) 626-3303 or visit www.ussa.edu .
Founded in 1984, ASAMA is dedicated to the preservation of sports art, history, and literature. The ASAMA collection is composed of nearly 2,000 works of sport art across a variety of media, including paintings, sculptures, assemblages, prints and photographs. The museum is open free to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. For more information, go to www.asama.org.
By Eric Mann
Eric Mann is the communications assistant at the United States Sports Academy. He can be reached at emann@ussa.edu.