The Big Ten Championship Game between top-rated Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana appears to be one of those special encounters that will be remembered for many years.
The Buckeyes are the defending national champions and they have had a perfect regular season. They are hoping to become one of the rare teams in recent college football history that wins back to back titles. Indiana has risen from the lower tier of the Big Ten in the past two years. This team was just just 3-9 in 2023, but the arrival of head coach Curt Cignetti has helped this team rise like a comet. They were 11-2 a year ago and they have the same 12-0 record that the Buckeyes have this season.
In a previous era, a conference championship game between two undefeated teams would mean everything to the Big Ten. The winner would go to the Rose Bowl and play for the national championship while the loser would head to another high-profile bowl game with a chance to regain pride.
This time around, the outcome is not likely to have an impact on either team's national championship chances unless the game is a blowout in either direction or significant injuries take place.
But aside from that, claiming the Big Ten title certainly would mean quite a bit for Indiana, playing in the Big Ten title game for the first time. But Ohio State appears to have little to gain — or lose by playing in this game.
Ohio State has already met its regular-season goal
Head coach Ryan Day was under severe pressure a year ago, when his team lost its fourth straight game to Michigan. Ohio State fans were severely disappointed and many of them wanted to send Day to the unemployment line. However, Day and the Buckeyes had a new opportunity because they were participating in the expanded College Football Playoffs and there was a path to the national championship.
Ohio State was the No. 6 seed in the tournament and few expected them to win the title. However, the Buckeyes shook off their disappointment at losing to the Wolverines and they reeled off victories over Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame to win the title. Quarterback Will Howard, running backs Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson and wide receivers Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka and Carnell Tate were the leaders of that team and Ohio State was dominant. They won all of those postseason games by at least 14 points.
That was last year, and the Buckeyes had to start over this year. They had lost Howard, Judkins, Henderson and Egbuka to the NFL, but they still had Smith and Tate along with new quarterback Julian Sayin and running back Bo Jackson. The start of the year saw them as mere 1.5-point favorites in the season opener to top-ranked Texas at Ohio Stadium, but many expected the Longhorns to win the game and roll to a huge season.
Buckeyes handled business against Texas and Michigan — and every game in between
Ohio State stifled Texas 14-7 and defeated every team on their schedule. They were 11-0 heading into the season finale against Michigan, and the Wolverines were motivated to make it five wins in a row over the Buckeyes. A win could have propelled Michigan into the CFP and the Big Ten title game, but Ohio State overcame a 6-0 deficit and rolled to a decisive 27-9 triumph.
The Buckeyes now can concentrate on winning their 10th national championship. Winning a 41st Big Ten title would be OK (ho-hum), but winning another national title is what matters to this elite football program. Even if Ohio State falls short against Indiana, a first-round bye in the CFP is likely. Day, Sayin, Jackson and Smith have to avoid a blowout loss or an injury. The Big Ten title for a team with Ohio State's history really does not mean much with the CFP coming up.
Indiana would feel incredible pride
Indiana has always been known as a basketball school — a basketball state — even before the days that Bob Knight was the head coach of the Hoosiers. The football team tied for the Big Ten championship in 1967 with Purdue and Minnesota, and that was the only time in school history Indiana has been to the Rose Bowl.
There has never been an outright Big Ten championship, and winning the title game against Ohio State would give them a chance to claim that honor for the first time in team history.
Cignetti has been something of a miracle worker in his two seasons in Bloomington, and he has a brilliant quarterback in Fernando Mendoza, a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate.
The Hoosiers have taken care of business against every opponent, and their 30-20 win at Oregon in mid-October is their most impressive accomplishment.
Like the Buckeyes, they will be highly seeded in the CFP whether they win or lose the Big Ten title game. But hanging that Big Ten championship pennant at Memorial Stadium would be one of the best recruiting tools for the football program has ever had. Winning the conference title would become a source of pride that the football program has never had in the past.
The Big Ten championship would certainly mean more to Indiana than Ohio State.
