The Big Ten Championship Game between the Wisconsin Badgers and the Ohio State isn’t really a Super Bowl, even though Lucas Oil Stadium is a domed venue and a place which has in fact hosted the Supe in the past. One can’t really call this game a Super Bowl because Ohio State can lose it and still make the College Football Playoff. A “Super Bowl-style” game can’t have that dimension.
What we CAN say about this Big Ten battle, however, is that it is a championship game. It isn’t a quarterfinal or a semifinal. It’s a final. It is a meeting of two champions — champions of divisions — for a trophy and regional bragging rights. Seems pretty important, right?
Here is a fact which the national press isn’t discussing very much this week, with Ohio State getting most of the national play before the playoff, in which it will surely participate: Wisconsin, for all the times it has made the Big Ten Championship Game, hasn’t won the Big Ten since 2012.
That statement might be surprising to some. Others might see Ohio State’s dominance under Urban Meyer and think that statement isn’t surprising at all. Regardless, this much is clear: Wisconsin is simultaneously a program which has made the most Big Ten title game appearances of any conference member (6), and a program which has gone seven years without winning the league.
Wisconsin inhabits a weird and complicated reality heading into this latest Big Ten title tilt with Ohio State: The Badgers have been undeniably and consistently successful. Their program is in a very good place. They just punched Minnesota in the teeth to win a division title and knock the Gophers out of the Rose Bowl. How sweet is THAT? They are making their third trip to Indianapolis in the past four seasons, their fourth in the last six. Yet, they haven’t been able to win in Indianapolis since 2012 against Bo Pelini.
They didn’t beat Penn State in 2016, in a game which got away from them. They didn’t beat J.T. Barrett and a vulnerable Ohio State team in 2017. The 2014 game against Ohio State? Let’s not talk about that one. You know what happened then. Wisconsin is still searching for an elusive conference title. Ohio State fans will quickly point out that if the 2012 Buckeyes had been eligible for postseason play, they would have replaced Wisconsin as Nebraska’s opponent in Lucas Oil Stadium.
This is a seven-year itch for Wisconsin. Can the Badgers scratch it tonight? It would mean the world — and then some — if they can. It would also mean a ticket to Pasadena on January 1. It’s go time for UW.