The 2020 Big Ten Football Championship Game was a college football game played on December 19, 2020 at

Lucas Oil Stadium Lucas Oil Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It replaced the RCA Dome as the home field of the National Football League (NFL)'s Indianapolis Colts and opened on August 16, 2008. The stadium was ...

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mari ...

. The tenth annual

Big Ten Football Championship Game The Big Ten Football Championship Game is a college football game held by the Big Ten Conference each year to determine the conference's season champion. The game, held after the regular season has been completed, matches the division champions ...

, it determined the 2020 champion of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

. The game was played between the No. 4

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree ...

out of the East division, and the No. 14

Northwestern Wildcats The Northwestern Wildcats are the athletic teams that represent Northwestern University, located in Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern is a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and the only private university in the conference. Northwestern ...

out of the West division. Sponsored by credit card company

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, the game was officially known as the Big Ten Championship Game presented by Discover.

History

The 2020 Championship Game was the tenth in the Big Ten's 125-year history and the seventh to feature the conference's East and West alignment. East division champion

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

won the 2019 game over West division champion

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

by a score of 34–21.

Teams

Ohio State and Northwestern faced each other in the Big Ten Championship Game for the second time. Ohio State won the first championship game between the two schools, in

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Northwestern

Northwestern booked their place in the Championship Game by winning the West Division with a record of 6–1 (6–1 Big Ten). The Wildcats are making their second appearance in the Championship Game, with the only previous appearance coming in 2018 against Ohio State. The Wildcats are ranked 14th in the College Football Playoff rankings heading into the game.

Ohio State

Ohio State secured their place in the Championship Game by winning the East Division with an undefeated 5–0 (5–0 Big Ten) regular season record. This will be Ohio State's sixth appearance in the Championship Game, and fourth consecutive. They are the three-time reigning conference champions. The Buckeyes are ranked fourth in the

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...

rankings heading into the game. Originally, Ohio State would not have qualified to play in the championship game due to the Big Ten's six-game minimum rule that was adopted in light of the

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, but that rule was eliminated shortly after Ohio State's final game, against

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, was canceled. This allowed the Buckeyes to advance to the Championship game at 5–0 over Big Ten East runners-up

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

, who finished 6–1.

Game summary

Statistics

Notes

References

External links

Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com {{DEFAULTSORT:2020 Big Ten Football Championship Game

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

Big Ten Football Championship Game Northwestern Wildcats football games Ohio State Buckeyes football games

Big Ten Football Champ 2020s in Indianapolis