By 1975, not only were both teams battling hard in their regular season finale in "The Game", but they were also competing heavily on a national level year after year. The Wolverines had visited the Rose Bowl twice, and the Buckeyes had won the 1973 Rose Bowl against USC.Background:
Michigan jumped into the 1975 season with a big, 23-6 victory against the Wisconsin Badgers, but they were unable to carry over the early momentum to the next two weeks, tying with both Stanford and Baylor. Although the Wolverines hadn't lost a game yet, having only one win through the first three weeks was already setting them back enough. It was vitally important to pick it up and not look back, which is exactly what they did.
The Wolverines pounced out through the rest of the season. Under Bo, Michigan was winning with relative ease, including an astonishing 69-0 victory over Northwestern. The next week was followed up with a 55-7 blow-out win over Indiana. That's 126 points in two weeks of football for the Wolverines, and things didn't cool down after that. Michigan marched on to win their final three games of the season, heading into "The Game" with a record of 8-0-2.
