Big Ten Football Championship Game

The Big Ten Football Championship Game is a college football game that is held by the Big Ten Conference each year since 2011 to determine the conference's season champion. The championship game will pit the division champions from the conference's West and East divisions in a game held after the regular season has been completed. The game is held the first Saturday of December at 8 PM Eastern.

The winner of this game will earn the Big Ten's automatic berth in the Rose Bowl Game, unless the team is selected to play in the four-team College Football Playoff. If this is the case, they will go to one of the bowls hosting the national semifinals. The winner of this game will also receive the Stagg Championship Trophy, and the most valuable player of this game will receive the Grange-Griffin Championship Game Most Valuable Player Trophy.

The conference currently has a deal making Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis the site of the championship game through 2021.^[1]

History

Prior to the 2011 college football season, the Big Ten Conference determined its conference representative through regular season play, and, as there were only 11 member schools, there was no possibility for a conference championship game because, at the time, the NCAA required (for holding a conference championship game) that the conference have 12 teams with two divisions.

In 2010, the Big Ten Conference added the University of Nebraska, bringing the membership total to 12 teams. Thus, the conference was able to meet NCAA requirements. On August 5, 2010 Big Ten Conference Commissioner James Delany announced Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis had been chosen as the possible site for the inaugural championship game. The league office began a 30-day period to negotiate a one-year agreement with Indiana Sports Corp and Lucas Oil Stadium to host the game. Delany also announced that once the 2011 agreement was in place, the conference office would conduct a thorough process over the next year to determine the location of the Big Ten Football Championship Game in 2012 and beyond.^[2]

On November 17, 2010, the Big Ten Conference announced a media agreement with FOX Sports to serve as the official broadcast partner for the 2011-16 Big Ten Football Championship Games. A source at the time stated that the six-year agreement with FOX Sports would be worth between $20–$25 million per season, making it one of the most valuable conference championship games in college football.^[3] In the league's press release, it was confirmed that the 2011 event will take place at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. The events will be played in prime time. Because FOX is a majority partner in the Big Ten Network,^[4] this may allow for the possibility of more involvement by the Big Ten Network in the event, including the use of Big Ten Network staff in the game coverage.^[5]

Commissioner Delany also stated at that time that the Big Ten would strongly consider rotating the site of the game, mentioning other possible host cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Green Bay, and Cleveland.^[3]

On June 5, 2014 the Big Ten Conference announced via press release that the Big Ten Football Championship game would continue to be held at Lucas Oil Stadium through the 2021 season.^[6][7]

Conference expansion

The Big Ten expanded to 11 schools by adding Penn State in 1990,^[8] but this did not yet meet the NCAA's requirements for holding a conference championship game (that the conference have 12 teams with two divisions). A few other times during that period, there were talks between the Big Ten and other schools (namely, Kansas, Missouri, and Rutgers,^[9] and later Notre Dame^[10]) which might have led to the possibility of a conference with two divisions of at least six teams and a conference championship, but for various reasons, nothing came to fruition.

It was not until December 2009, when Commissioner Delany announced that the league would explore the possibility of adding one or more institutions, that the wheels were set in motion that would lead to the Big Ten adding a school for the first time in 20 years. Less than a year later, on June 11, 2010, Nebraska applied for membership and was unanimously accepted by the conference's 11 member schools. Its membership became effective on July 1, 2011.^[11]

In November 2012, the Big Ten announced that Maryland^[12] and Rutgers^[13] would join the conference in 2014, which brought conference membership up to 14 schools.

Team selection

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Maryland

Michigan

Michigan State

Minnesota

Nebraska

Northwestern

Ohio State

Penn State

Purdue

Rutgers

Wisconsin

– East division
– West division
– Championship Game site

After the addition of Nebraska to the conference, there was much debate over what would be the best division of the 12 schools. Some felt that it would be best to maintain geographical divisions. Others felt that geography should only be a factor insofar as there was competitive balance between the two divisions. Another very important factor for Big Ten schools was the maintenance of long-standing rivalries that the schools held with each other.

On September 1, 2010, Commissioner Delany revealed how the teams would be placed into the two divisions.^[14] They were provisionally called X and O.

Later, on December 13, 2010, Commissioner Delany announced that the two divisions would be called Legends and Leaders.^[15] The scheduling arrangement for the schools was that they would face each of the other schools in their division, plus three crossover opponents, one of which would be permanent. The permanent crossover opponent would be used to ensure that long standing historical rivalries would continue.

On August 4, 2011, the Big Ten Conference announced that there would be a nine-game conference schedule beginning in 2017, allowing schools to play four crossover opponents.^[16] However, the Big Ten and Pac-12 later announced a multi-sport scheduling agreement that provides for each member school to play one non-conference football game per year against an opponent from the other conference, and with this announcement, the Big Ten backed away from the nine-game conference schedule proposal.

Following the 2014 entry of Maryland and Rutgers, the "Leaders" and "Legends" divisions were set aside and replaced by geographic divisions, with the schools in the Central Time Zone plus Purdue forming the new West Division, and the remaining members forming the East Division. In addition, the conference adopted a nine-game schedule beginning in 2016.^[17]

Results

Year	Legends Division		Leaders Division		Site	Attendance	MVP
2011	11 Michigan State Spartans	39	15 Wisconsin Badgers	42	Lucas Oil Stadium • Indianapolis, IN	64,152	QB Russell Wilson, Wisconsin
2012	14 Nebraska Cornhuskers	31	Wisconsin Badgers	70		41,260	RB Montee Ball, Wisconsin
2013	10 Michigan State Spartans	34	2 Ohio State Buckeyes	24		66,002	QB Connor Cook, Michigan State
Year	East Division		West Division		Site	Attendance	MVP
2014	6 Ohio State Buckeyes	59	11 Wisconsin Badgers	0	Lucas Oil Stadium • Indianapolis, IN	60,229	QB Cardale Jones, Ohio State
2015	5 Michigan State Spartans	16	4 Iowa Hawkeyes	13		66,985	QB Connor Cook, Michigan State
2016	8 Penn State Nittany Lions	38	6 Wisconsin Badgers	31		65,018	QB Trace McSorley, Penn State
2017	8 Ohio State Buckeyes	27	3 Wisconsin Badgers	21		65,886	RB J. K. Dobbins, Ohio State

Rankings from the AP Poll released prior to the game

In 2012 Wisconsin finished third in the Leaders division, but division champion Ohio State and second place Penn State were banned from postseason play due to sanctions.

Broadcasters

Selection criteria

On September 1, 2011, the Big Ten Conference announced the divisional tiebreaker procedures that will be used to determine the representatives in the championship game.^[18] Division standings are based on each team's overall conference record, excluding teams ineligible for postseason because of sanctions. In the event that two teams are tied, the head-to-head results between those two teams determines the tiebreaker. Unlike the Southeastern Conference, whose rules were established before NCAA overtime and inclement weather concerns are possible, the Big Ten does not have a policy in case the head-to-head result is a tie because of inclement weather.

See also

List of NCAA Division I FBS Conference Championship games

References