The race for the Big Ten title

If there was one word that could describe college sports, specifically college football, it would be chaos. Within the last five years, we have seen NIL, the transfer portal, conference realignment which now sees teams on the Pacific Coast playing in the Big Ten and ACC, and now the expanded playoff.

What all this has created is even more chaos, as evidenced by the race for the Big Ten championship.

Oregon currently stands alone at the top of the conference, and the country for that matter. They will be favored in every game remaining on their schedule, which would leave them undefeated. Would that guarantee them a spot in the championship game though? This seems ridiculous, but is a legitimate question.

Penn State plays Ohio State at home this weekend in a top-five matchup. It’s the hardest game left on Penn State’s schedule, and if they win this Saturday, they likely win out leaving them undefeated.

Then there’s Indiana, one of the biggest surprises in the country this year. Curt Cignetti has the Hoosiers at 8-0 in year one. They also play Ohio State later in the year. If they can pull out a win on the road, they will likely finish undefeated as well.

None of Oregon, Penn State or Indiana play each other in the regular season. That leaves all three undefeated in Big Ten play and for the season and each with a big win over Ohio State. So how do we decide who plays for the Big Ten Championship?

If that happens, the tiebreaker would be the combined winning percentage of each team’s conference opponents. Oregon’s Big Ten opponents have a combined record of 13-17 so far. Penn State’s are 9-12. Indiana’s are 7-18.

Of course, Ohio State winning one or both of Penn State and Indiana would put this chaos to rest. If they win both, they would have the head-to-head tiebreaker. If they only win one of those games, that leaves two undefeated teams that would go to the championship game.

That also begs the question, who is suitable to take out Oregon? The Ducks are sitting on top right now after their big win over Ohio State.

If they face off in the title game, could the Buckeyes get their revenge? They definitely have the talent and only lost by one point on the road in a hostile environment. At the same time, Oregon made a number of big mistakes and was still able to pull out the win due to winning the line of scrimmage.

Penn State has a big test against the Buckeyes this weekend. They are also very strong on the line of scrimmage, particularly defensively. They don’t have the skill players of Oregon and Ohio State, but Drew Allar has the potential to take this team to the next level.

Indiana will face Ohio State in Columbus on Nov. 23. There will be questions over whether or not they can match Ohio State physically and athletically, and more good reason. But Cignetti and his team have shown they shouldn’t be counted out all year. Quarterback Kurtis Rourke is leading a fantastic year, and nobody is safe in college football this year.

Jacob Rudy is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jar7371@psu.edu.