Indiana Beats Ohio State in Big 10 Championship Game, Secures Top Seed in College Football Playoff

Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza passed for 222 yards and a touchdown and the Hoosier defense shutout Ohio State in the second half as Indiana beat Ohio State 13-10 to win the Big 10 Conference football championship. Indiana improved to 13-0, while handing the Buckeyes (12-1) their first loss of the season. The Hoosiers are the last undefeated team in the Football Bowl Subdivision of Division I, and are the #1 seed in the 12 team College Football Playoff.

You have to go way back to 1967 to find the last Indiana conference championship in football. That year, the Hoosiers were 6-1 in the Big 10 and 9-1 overall, finishing in a 3 way tie with Minnesota and Purdue for the Big 10 title. (Conference championship games were years in the future). Indiana had lost to Purdue but had beaten Minnesota. At the time, the Big 10 had a rule that no team could go to the Rose Bowl (the only Bowl the Big 10 played in at the time) in consecutive years, eliminating Purdue. Indiana had never gone to a Rose Bowl, and Minnesota had gone earlier in the decade, so Indiana went to Pasadena. The Hoosiers lost to USC 14-3 in the Rose Bowl on New Year s Day 1968.

In 1945, Indiana won its only other outright Big 10 Championship, finishing with a 5-0-1 conference record and a 9-0-1 overall record. This was two before the Rose Bowl matched the at that time Pacific Coast Conference champion with the Big 10 champ, and so Indiana’s season was complete after the regular season finale.

Indiana is the #1 seed in the College Football Playoff field and receives a first round bye, along with #2 Ohio State, #3 Georgia, and #4 Texas Tech, all three of which are 12-1. Indiana will play the winner of the #8 Oklahoma (10-2) and #9 Alabama (10-3) first round game. Under the new format, the four quarterfinal games on January 1st and the semi finals are the old New Year s Six Bowl games. Indiana’s game just happens to be the Rose Bowl.