It seemed like a certainty that The Game between Michigan and Ohio State would be the most-watched game of the 2023 college football regular season, but where there was some uncertainty was whether it would be the most watched Michigan-Ohio State game in the long history of the rivalry. Well, the TV ratings are in, and we have our answer.

Michigan's 30-24 win over Ohio State drew 19.07 million viewers for FOX's ‘Big Noon Saturday,' which was the second-largest audience for a Michigan-Ohio State game, trailing only the 2006 meeting (21.04 million), per Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch.

Now if you were certain that this year's game between Michigan and Ohio State was by far the biggest in the history of the rivalry and that the viewership would reflect that, I'm just here to tell you that you're misremembering how monumental the build-up to the 2006 contest between these two Big Ten giants was. Billed as “The Game of the Century” between the two top-ranked teams in the nation, the Buckeyes and Wolverines threw haymakers at each other for three straight hours on a chilly afternoon in Columbus like they were Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, somehow managing to exceed the insane hype of the game. Ohio State prevailed 42-39, winning the Big Ten and securing a berth into the National Championship Game in the process, where they would be trounced by a Florida Gators team that would go on to win another National Title two years later.

Michigan doesn't get the same prize Ohio State did. The Wolverines still need to handle business against Iowa in the Big Ten Championship Game (there was not yet a Big Ten Championship Game in 2006) and then win two College Football Playoff games in order to secure a National Title. But with Jim Harbaugh back on the sideline, the Wolverines have emerged as the betting favorite to win it all.