By John Erardi
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Buckeye Hall of Fame bartender Sally Vernon pours a glass of Hall of Fame Scarlet Ale. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

COLUMBUS - Tickets are $300 and up - if you can find them. Public service ads admonish fans to behave. Extra cops are on call, and hundreds of tailgate parties are primed and prepped already.

Could that have been 500 fans jammed into just one predawn rally Friday?

As if the greatest college rivalry needs any further buildup, today's Ohio State-Michigan football game could propel the No. 2-ranked Buckeyes to their first national championship in 31 years. If Ohio State beats No. 12-ranked Michigan, the Buckeyes will preserve their unbeaten season and go to the Jan. 3 Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Ariz.

Which would be one huge affair.

"When they (the Buckeyes) lose today, I don't know how their fans are going to take it," says Ed Mignery, the former Hamilton High football coach whose son, Andy, plays for Michigan. "It's going to be a big letdown."

The cars carrying Xavier, Miami and Ohio University students began arriving late Friday on leaf-strewn 15th Street, just off the main-campus drag.

Never mind that they can't get tickets into 101,568-seat Ohio Stadium. They're here just for the party - as are at least another 30,000 people who'll revel outside in RVs, tents and SUVs.

"I've been to every stadium in the Big Ten, (scores) of 'em across the country, and I've never seen a place that tailgates like Columbus," says Dick Smith, the 27-year president of the Buckeye Boosters fan club

At the center of it

OSU students Bob Koger and Matt Neely don't need ESPN.com (which rates the Ohio State-Michigan matchup as the greatest rivalry of the 20th century) or The Sporting News ("For party atmospheres, there's no place like Columbus on a football Saturday") to tell them that they are at the epicenter of a college football earthquake today.

All that Koger and Neely need do is look around their apartment inside a converted sorority house. By early today, there won't be an empty spot on the floor.

"I don't even know for sure how many guys are coming in," says Koger, a 21-year-old junior from Cleveland. "All I know for sure is that per square foot, we can't possibly have as many guys as we did for the Michigan game two years ago. In a 15-by-15-foot dorm room, we had 20 guys spend the weekend."

You do the math. Koger refuses; he isn't a math major. All he knows is that 20 doesn't go into 15 unless you're a sardine.

And even though Koger is a business major, he turned down a $300 offer for his $21.20 face-value student ticket and an offer from his employer at Hyde Park Grill to wait tables tonight, when he could have made more than $200 in wages and tips.

"That's a $550 swing, but I wouldn't miss this game for anything," Koger says.

Bill Schuller, from Chillicothe, wouldn't miss it, either. He's been going to Ohio State-Michigan games since 1959. He doesn't know if this one's the biggest, "but it feels like it." He booked his room at the nearby Red Roof Inn last December.

The regulars know they'll find three humongous indoor/outdoor parties on Lane Avenue - at the Varsity Club bar, Cooker restaurant and Holiday Inn, all clustered together.

"If somebody wants a spot at the bar (this) morning," says Varsity Club day manager Laurie Watkins, "you'd better be here before the sun comes up. They'll be waiting in line an hour-and-a-half before we open (at 7:30 a.m.)."

Estimates are that these parties on Lane alone will have upward of 15,000 people at or around them - and that's after the game has begun.

There are live bands, video screens, food carts, vendors' booths, beer tents, trucks and at least 50 portable toilets.

"Everybody considers this the biggest organized football party in the country," says Marty Sims, food and beverage director at the Holiday Inn, which hosts a raucous version of tailgate known as "Hineygate."

'Big cheese'

"It will be big cheese," adds Betsy Harris, a Holiday Inn waitress and daughter of former Bengals offensive line coach Jim McNally. "That's how we (waitresses) rank these Saturday game days, by cheese: cheddar, Swiss, Monterey Jack. This one will be huge. It will be big gouda. I know I won't get to eat, and if I'm lucky I might get to go to the bathroom once - but it's worth it. I'll make more money in two days than I did in two weeks of teaching."

Brent LaLonde, a spokesman for the Greater Columbus Convention & Visitors Bureau, estimates the financial impact of an Ohio State-Michigan weekend to be $10 million to $12 million.

That's anywhere between 50 percent to 200 percent more than the usual home-game weekend, he says.

"A few years ago, we saw that the congestion of patrons of the establishments on Lane - and the vehicles trying to get through - was such that we began closing the street to vehicular traffic for two hours pre- and post-game," says Lt. Karl Barth of the traffic bureau/special events department of Columbus police. "Last home game (Penn State), we went to two hours and 45 minutes. (Today), we plan on closing it three-and-a-half hours prior to kickoff."

Lt. Barth says the Varsity Club, Cooker and Holiday Inn have hired among them three Columbus police lieutenants, six sergeants and 45 officers for crowd control and safety. Nearby, the RiverWatch and Harrison House condos have each hired officers, too, as has nearly every fast-food joint around.

Just don't expect a PG kind of day.

"There's a lot of drinking there, and some ladies (flashing) their breasts," Lt. Barth says.

Just wipe your feet

"If you see a Michigan sweatshirt on the ground, you just wipe your feet on it - everybody does," adds Jack Kuhnhein, father of Ohio State reserve player Scott Kuhnhein, an offensive guard out of Highlands High School. "I hope they (the OSU fans) bought it off the rack, and didn't rip it off some Michigan guy's back."

Debbie Michalski, mother of Ryan Hamby, the 6-foot-5, 240-pound Ohio State tight end out of Moeller High School, knows the feeling.

Two years ago, before he enrolled at OSU, her son attended a Michigan game in Columbus. He wore his Moeller letter jacket, colors blue and gold. The jacket didn't say "Moeller." There was just a big "M."

That's more than enough to make you look like the arch-enemy, maize-and-blue Michigan.

"We had no idea - he had no idea - what he was in for," Mrs. Michalski says.

"But he just took the comments in stride. He didn't say anything back to the Ohio State fans. Afterward he said, 'Mom, this place is awesome. This is the place I want to go.' "

Generally, Ohio State fans are well-behaved. The school has taken great pains during the past week to issue radio-and-TV public service announcements from former Buckeye greats Archie Griffin, Chris Spielman and Kirk Herbstreit, asking fans to comport themselves appropriately.

"Let's show the nation what Ohio State is all about," Griffin says on the public service ad. "Show them we are a class act."

There are, of course, some renegades.

If you're lucky enough to have a ticket today, look for Koger and Neely. They'll be the guys wearing the "cheesy, plastic OSU helmets." About 11:45 p.m., on their way into the stadium, they'll bust through a 15-foot-long, 5-foot-high sign.

You'll know the one. It will read: "---- Michigan."

Notes

If OSU wins today, it will be the first time it records back-to-back victories over Michigan since 1981 and 1982.

OSU's longest winning streak in the series: 4 (1960-63, 1934-37).

The last time Ohio State was shut out: 28-0, 1993.

Quarterback Craig Krenzel is the only player on the Ohio State roster from the state of Michigan.

On the air

TV: Noon, ABC (Channel 9).

Radio: WSRW-FM (106.7); WBOB-AM (1160).

Series

Michigan leads the series 56-36-6.

Michigan leads 21-18-1 in Ohio Stadium.

The first game was in 1897 in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Wolverines won 34-0.

The last time Michigan was shut out: 28-0, 1962.

Michigan's longest winning streak: 9 (1901-09).