Michigan Survives 1st Test, Is Now Set for Collision Course with Ohio State

It wasn't Michigan's prettiest victory, but by the time the clock hit zeros in Ann Arbor on Saturday, the Wolverines' status as a national championship contender was solidified. Further, a path to Columbus for a historic rivalry game against Ohio State appears all but assured.

A 14-7 win over No. 8 Wisconsin might seem ho-hum, but those who watched from a big-picture perspective were aware of how meaningful No. 4 Michigan's first Top 10 victory since 2009 was.

According to Odds Shark, Michigan was a 10-point favorite, but the seven-point victory made it clear the Wolverines belonged in the College Football Playoff picture.

"The sky's the limit," Michigan cornerback Jourdan Lewis told ESPN's Todd McShay in his televised postgame interview. "We gotta keep preparing for a championship season."

The Wolverines started the season 4-0 and hung at least 45 points on each team, but they played Hawaii, UCF, Colorado and Penn State—not exactly murderers' row. No. 1 Alabama knocked off Ole Miss, while No. 2 Ohio State legitimized itself with a road win over Oklahoma.

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For the past month, it's remained unclear how the Wolverines would stack up to the nation's elite—especially Ohio State, whom Michigan will meet in its regular-season finale.

That all changed Saturday.

Tied at seven nearly midway through the fourth quarter, quarterback Wilton Speight's 46-yard, game-winning touchdown pass to Amara Darboh was the type of clutch play that's been missing from U-M's resume—outside of the Heisman-caliber highlight reel linebacker/safety/jack-of-all trades Jabrill Peppers has put on tape for the past month.

Only no longer are the Wolverines a one-man show. With Saturday's fourth-quarter victory, Michigan now knows it has a quarterback it can count on.

"It saved us," Lewis told McShay of Speight's touchdown toss. "The offense was stuttering a little bit, and that helped us a lot. That gave us the confidence to go out there and finish the game."

The Wolverines did just that, and while they'll never admit it publicly, nobody could blame Jim Harbaugh's squad if it started looking ahead to that Nov. 26 matchup. Three of Michigan's next four games will come against teams with losing records, the exception being a matchup with Michigan State (2-2), a rivalry game that will take place in East Lansing.

However, Michigan could even lose to its in-state rival and still find itself controlling its own destiny in the Big Ten title race by the final week of November.

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The Buckeyes have plenty of tests of their own over the course of the next eight weeks, with games against Wisconsin, Nebraska and Michigan State serving as potential roadblocks.

But if Ohio State can survive the next two months with just one loss, a Buckeyes-Wolverines battle with everything on the line (Big Ten East title, playoff hopes) is realistic. Ten years after Ohio State and Michigan squared off as the nation's first- and second-ranked teams, the Buckeyes and Wolverines could find themselves facing one another with similar stakes.

Only this time, it would be a battle between Jim Harbaugh and Urban Meyer, college football's two highest-profile head coaches not named Nick Saban. Last year's outcome—a 42-13 Buckeyes beatdown—spoiled the premier of the highly anticipated coaching rivalry, but a winner-takes-all matchup would make the sequel worth the wait.

Yes, it's more than a month away, but with the way both Michigan and Ohio State have looked to this point, it's not too early to start looking ahead.

For the first time in a decade, both teams in college football's most storied rivalry are national title contenders. That's something we couldn't say for certain until the Wolverines' win over Wisconsin.

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod.