Matt Van Jura is one of those guys who would sacrifice life and limb in the name of football.

Last year before the Michigan Game, he ran the Beat Michigan 5K, attempted to break the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest pillow fight on the South Oval, cheered at the Pep Rally, and took the ceremonial plunge into the icy waters of Mirror Lake.

“It was freezing. I couldn’t walk after jumping in last year because I couldn’t feel my legs,” he said.

Students will once again take the historic dive into the shallows of Mirror Lake this Thursday as the Buckeyes prepare for the biggest game of the season. The Buckeyes head to Ann Arbor, Mich., this Saturday to challenge the Michigan Wolverines at 1 p.m. in the 102nd game of the rivalry. The Buckeyes, tied for first in the Big Ten Conference with Penn State, will defend last year’s win against Michigan, ranked third.

In 1999 an ESPN poll ranked the competition between Ohio State and Michigan as the greatest rivalry in sports. Sports fans from both schools hail it as the most anticipated game of the season. When the game was moved to the end of the season in 1935, the clash reached epic proportions.

“There is a lot more riding on the game now. You win this game, then you win the Big Ten and go on to the Rose Bowl,” said Tamar Chute, an OSU associate university archivist.

The enmity between Ohio and Michigan first began in a land dispute between the states.

“It all began in the dispute over Toledo,” Chute said. “There has always been the territorial aspect to this disagreement, and football just intensifies the emotion.”

When the Buckeyes first met the Wolverines in 1897, they suffered a 34-0 loss that fueled the fire for years of outright hatred at Michigan.

However, Jane Coaston, a freshman at the University of Michigan, suggests that rivalry is lopsided.

“We have Michigan State as our instate rival,” she said. “That game is a much bigger deal up here.”

Chute said the reason for unbalanced rivalry is that OSU does not have a competitive in-state rival, and the Buckeyes therefore look to the next regional opponent.

Michganders however, have plenty to be anxious about for this Saturday’s game.

“Everyone in America is going to be watching it,” said Zoltan Mesko, freshman punter for the Wolverines. “There’s going to be a lot of pressure.”

Mesko, a native Ohioan, was raised an OSU fan until he started playing for the University of Michigan this past fall.

“This is the biggest game of the season for me,” Mesko said. “Players go crazy in the locker room. There is so much more emotion when the whole nation is watching.”

However, both the Buckeyes and the Wolverines understand the importance of staying focused before the game.

“The coaches don’t play this game up any more than the rest. We know it’s important to stay focused,” Mesko said.

Yet beating Michigan is an important component of a season.

As former football coach John Cooper once said, “You can have a good season if you win the rest of your games … but you can’t have a great season unless you beat Michigan.”