The 2016 Big Ten Football Championship Game was played December 3, 2016 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 ...

. It was the sixth 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 ...

to determine the 2016 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 2016 Big Ten Championship Game pitted the Wisconsin Badgers, champions of the West Division, who made its fourth appearance in six years in the conference title game, against the East Division champion Penn State Nittany Lions, who made their first-ever appearance in the conference championship game. Penn State and Ohio State had identical 8–1 conference records, but Penn State won the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Buckeyes.

History

The 2016 Championship Game would be the sixth in the Big Ten's 121-year history, and the third to feature the conference's East and West division alignment. Last season, the

Big Ten 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 f ...

featured the

Michigan State Spartans The Michigan State Spartans are the athletic teams that represent Michigan State University. The school's athletic program includes 23 varsity sports teams. Their mascot is a Spartan warrior named Sparty, and the school colors are green and wh ...

, champions of the East Division, and the

Iowa Hawkeyes The Iowa Hawkeyes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. The Hawkeyes have varsity teams in 22 sports, 8 for men and 14 for women; a 15th women's sport will be added in 2023. The teams partici ...

, champions of the West Division. Iowa made its first appearance in the conference championship game, while Michigan State made its third appearance ( L in 2011, W in 2013). Michigan State defeated Iowa 16–13 to win its second Big Ten Championship in three years.

Other

For the third time in the championship's history, ESPN's College GameDay was on site prior to the game.

Legacy

In August 2020, the game was listed as #1 by ''BlackShoeDiaries.com'' on its ''Best Penn State Football Games of the Last Decade'' list. In May 2022, the game was listed as one of twelve games considered as Penn State's best by the

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

''StateCollege.com'' on its ''12 Seasons on the Beat (and Counting): The Top 12 Penn State Games'' list.

Teams

Wisconsin Badgers

The Badgers started the season unranked, and opened vs the No. 5

LSU Tigers The LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers are the athletic teams representing Louisiana State University (LSU), a state university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU competes in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a ...

, whom they upset, 16–14, at

Lambeau Field Lambeau Field is an outdoor athletic stadium in the north central United States, located in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The home field of the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL), it opened in 1957 as City Stadium, replacing ...

. The Badgers remained ranked the remainder of the season, peaking at No. 5 in both the AP (Week 12) and Coaches (Week 13) polls, and at No. 6 in the CFP rankings released on November 22 and November 29, 2016. The Badgers went into the Championship game 10–2 (7–2 Big Ten), with both losses coming to Top 5 teams: No. 4

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 ...

, who defeated Wisconsin 14–7; and No. 2

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 ...

, who defeated Wisconsin 30–23 in overtime.

Penn State Nittany Lions

The Nittany Lions started the season off 2–2 after losses to Pitt and No. 4

but finished the regular season on an 8-game winning streak as well as beating No. 2 Ohio State while averaging 35 points per game. They clinched the Big Ten East and a spot in the Big Ten Championship with a win and a Michigan loss to Ohio State. The Nittany Lions were led by sophomore duo

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Trace McSorley Richard Thomas "Trace" McSorley III (born August 23, 1995) is an American football quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Penn State, and was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens ...

and 1,000+ yard rusher in

Saquon Barkley Saquon Barkley ( ; born February 9, 1997) is an American football running back for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). Prior to entering the NFL in 2018, Barkley played college football at Penn State for three seasons gai ...

and junior wide receiver

Chris Godwin Rod Christopher Godwin Jr. (born February 27, 1996) is an American football wide receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Penn State and was drafted by the Buccaneers in the th ...

. They finished the regular season 10–2 (8–1 Big Ten), a big improvement from the last two seasons under head coach James Franklin (finished 7–6 both seasons). Following Penn State's upset of No. 2 Ohio State, the Nittany Lions would be ranked No. 24 in the AP poll, their first appearance in the poll since December 4, 2011, where they were ranked No. 23 prior to their loss to No. 17

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

in the

TicketCity Bowl The First Responder Bowl is an NCAA post-season college football bowl game played annually in the Dallas, Texas, area. The bowl was first held on January 1, 2011, and since 2014 has been contested in late December. The bowl was held at the Cot ...

. The following week, following their 62–24 victory over

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

, Penn State was ranked No. 23 in the Coaches poll, their first appearance in said poll since December 4, 2011. Furthermore, Penn State made its debut in the CFP's first ranking of the season on November 1, where they were placed at No. 12; throughout the remainder of the season, the Nittany Lions continued to climb, maxing out at No. 7/8 heading into the Big Ten Championship Game.

Game summary

Source:

Statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2016 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 Penn State Nittany Lions football games Wisconsin Badgers football games December 2016 sports events in the United States Big Ten Football Champ 2010s in Indianapolis