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Big Ten removes six-game minimum to play in football championship game

By Kevin Kelley - December 9, 2020
Big Ten Football

Photo: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

The Big Ten has removed the six-game minimum requirement to play in the conference football championship game, the league announced on Wednesday.

When the league revised the 2020 football schedule due to the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a rule was agreed upon that members had to play a minimum of six games to reach the conference championship game.

The Ohio State Buckeyes, currently 5-0 overall and 4-0 in the East Division, were on their way to playing six games until their contest against Michigan this weekend was canceled. With two other games canceled previously, that left the Buckeyes with only five games played in the regular-season.

The Indiana Hoosiers, also in the East Division, are 5-1 in the division but lost to the Buckeyes earlier this season, 42-35. Even if Ohio State played and lost to Michigan this weekend, the Buckeyes still would have advanced to the championship game based on the head-to-head tiebreaker with Indiana.

As a result of the decision, Ohio State will play in the 2020 Big Ten Football Championship Game against the Northwestern Wildcats. The game is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 19 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind., and the game kickoff at Noon ET with television coverage on FOX.

As for Indiana, the Hoosiers were “disappointed” but they “understand the conference’s decision.”

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Comments (3)

Go Northwestern!

Why makes rules if you will break them when more money is at stake?

If a 5-0 Ohio State is currently ranked 4th a 5-1 Ohio State would probably fall out of the playoff. I would love to see the look on the Athletic Director’s face if Northwestern has a big lead.

Go Northwestern!

The Big Ten owes Nebraska an apology. They wouldn’t change the rules so they could play a non-conference game when Wisconsin canceled, but they changed the rules for Ohio State? That’s low. There are 14 teams in the conference, and they should all be treated equally, but that isn’t the case.

I feel like the Nebraska-Big Ten marriage isn’t working like they had hoped. I wonder if Nebraska would entertain the idea of rejoining the Big-12 with say BYU or consider going independent.