Rosie: Maryland's a beautiful state.

Marco: This is Delaware.

Rosie: I know. I was one of the original Chinese workmen who laid the track on this stretch. But nonetheless, Maryland is a beautiful state. So is Ohio, for that matter.

Marco: I guess so. Columbus is a tremendous football town. You in the railroad business?

— Frank Sinatra and Janet Leigh in The Manchurian Candidate, 1962

Columbus is indeed a tremendous football town. And it's the center of the football universe this week as the top-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes prepare to battle the No. 2 Michigan Wolverines. But the city's reputation as one of the leading football towns in America has been built over a long period.

The fact that this reputation would come up in a film that has nothing to do with sports speaks volumes about how people felt about football in Ohio back then, and Columbus' reputation has only grown since. Ohio Stadium is arguably the most magnificent cathedral in all of sport and is known as one of the toughest places to play, thanks to the intensity of the Buckeye faithful.

It's also worth noting that Cleveland's reputation as a tremendous football town stems from what team founder and original head coach Paul Brown brought to the franchise from his time as head coach at Ohio State. Brown led the Buckeyes to their first national championship in 1942 and then brought those coaching skills — and a number of his players — to Cleveland to form the nucleus of the Browns in 1946. Brown led the team to become one of the NFL's premiere franchises in the '50s and early '60s, and while Cleveland's reputation as a fanatical football town reached new heights during the original Dawg Pound era in the '80s, that tradition of fanaticism can be traced back to Paul Brown's success at Ohio State.

Most Clevelanders feel an extra level of endearment toward the 2006 Buckeyes — the squad features numerous Cleveland-area players. Seven are products of Ted Ginn Sr.'s Glenville program alone, including Heisman Trophy candidate Troy Smith at quarterback and the electrifying Ted Ginn Jr. at wide receiver. Anthony Gonzalez, the Buckeyes' other starting receiver who made an already legendary catch to help beat Michigan last year, hails from St. Ignatius.

Smith, who has already authored two wins over Michigan and a Fiesta Bowl triumph over Notre Dame, is only four touchdown passes away from the Ohio State single-season record, and is two wins away from leading this year's Buckeyes to become the first team in school history to go wire-to-wire as the No. 1-ranked team in the nation. A win on Saturday would clinch the Heisman for Smith and also be the first time in more than four decades that Ohio State has defeated Michigan three years in a row.

But as previously undefeated and heavily favored Buckeye teams discovered in 1993, '95 and '96, a loss to Michigan in The Game would practically negate the entire season. Those teams are remembered more for their heartbreaking losses to Michigan than anything else. This is why the Ohio State-Michigan game is the most intense rivalry in all of sport. So it's not just a national championship at stake this week, but the legacy of what could be the most beloved Buckeye team of all time to Clevelanders.

With both teams coming in undefeated for the first time since 1973, and ranked first and second going into The Game for the first time ever, and playing for a bid in the Bowl Championship Series title game, the stakes for both sides have never been higher. In the 102 previous meetings, just four have come when both teams were undefeated and only nine have seen both teams ranked in the Top 5.

But Ohio State has an edge now that it lacked in the '90s under previous head coach John Cooper: head coach Jim Tressel, who grew up in the Cleveland area and has an understanding of the rivalry that Cooper could never fathom.

"The Ohio State-Michigan game is always the biggest game," Tressel told reporters. "It doesn't matter what the records are or what's on the table."

This understanding of The Game's significance has helped Tressel succeed where Cooper failed, going 4-1 against Michigan so far and winning a national championship in 2002. Cooper, 2-10-1 against the Wolverines, was always uptight about the national ramifications of The Game, and that filtered down to his players. The low point may have been in 1997 in Ann Arbor, when Michigan was undefeated and playing for a shot at the national championship. When Cooper was introduced, the home fans cheered his name! Any coach with a shred of self-respect would have resigned after enabling such an embarrassing moment for the program, but not Coop. Michigan won, of course, and Cooper still coached three more years.

But the rivalry's tide has turned under Tressel, who won't receive cheers in Michigan any time soon. Not only a far better game-day coach than Cooper, Tressel has also locked up the in-state talent. No longer are many Cleveland stars defecting to that state up north, as in the '90s. It's now taken for granted that Ohio State is the ultimate destination for college football players from the region. Those players are likely to be the difference on Saturday, so take heart Cleveland, because while The Game has never meant more nationally or to the whole state, it also means more to Cleveland than it ever has, or probably ever will.

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