Saturday sees the Big Ten complete its season with every team in the conference playing a finals game. 

The championship will be between Indiana and Ohio State, a rematch of a game GRR attended earlier this fall, which Indiana won 33-31.

This was a game that Ohio State had in hand and then saw a series of penalties, and a couple of key momentum shifts turn the game around — Ohio State led 31-14 and Indiana scored three tries in the final 30 minutes to take the game back.

Aside from that game, Indiana hardly gave up a point all season. Ohio State wasn’t quite the same but won every other conference game by huge amounts (26, 36, 38, 45, and 75). 

Indiana didn’t, but they also rested some starters the last couple of weeks, a strategy that can work nicely or sometimes leave a team a bit cold. What it did do was give players who haven’t started a lot a chance to perform. Kennan MacKowski, Eric Larson, and Saikou Barry all took that chance. So did freshman prop Brett Krenke, who played the entire B-side game and then, because of an injury, rocked up for 60 minutes in the A-side game.

Ohio State, for their part, didn’t do that. The lineup that played Indiana and the one that beat Wisconsin 80-5 two months later had 12 players who were the same. So do they come in tired, or do they come in hot?

OSU did ring the changes against Wisconsin and four guys came off the bench to score a try. So, yes, the Buckeyes have depth too.

Michigan State plays Illinois in the 3rd-4th game and this is going to be a good one. Illinois started the season 3-1 (getting shut out by Indiana in the middle) before losing their last two. Michigan State, tellingly, opened up with a loss to Ohio State and then lost only 10-0 to Indiana (in a mud pit). 

Then they went on a 4-0 run, including the first of Illinois’ two late losses, 15-13 at Illinois. Michigan State scored their 15 points in the first 50 minutes of the game and then held on desperately. Illinois got their lone try with 15 minutes to go and so had time to finish the comeback. They just didn’t.

So this is a huge game for both teams. It’s kind of unfinished business for both.

Michigan takes on Purdue for 5th in the conference, and this is a game of two teams that have shown flashes, but in the end have been up-and-down. Purdue needs to find their offense. They scored 52 points in their first two conference games and 37 in the final four. Michigan slammed Purdue 45-14 on October 23, but didn’t build on that against Michigan State six days later.

And finally, since there are seven teams in the conference, to get a fourth game you need an eighth team. That eighth team is Northwestern. The Wildcats play in the Great Midwest DII, but retain ties to the Big Ten. Playing Wisconsin is a good way for Northwestern, as a Big Ten School to keep involved and measure their competitiveness. 

(The Big 10 NCAA Conference is, of course, quite silly now with 14 universities including Nebraska, Rutgers, Penn State, and Maryland. But the traditional ten institutions: Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Northwestern, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Purdue have mostly been members since the 1890s, and when we talk about Big Ten Schools this is who we mean.)

Wisconsin, conference champions only a few years ago, could use this game as a launching point for rebuilding.

Finally: Congratulations to Illinois, which not only has the opportunity to finish 3rd in the conference, but also won the hotly-contested B-side championship. The Illinois B-side went 6-0, got four-try bonus points in every game, and outscored every team by at least 10 points per game.

The Big Ten Championship Weekend will be held at Chicago Lions Rugby for Hope Complex Saturday, November 13:

7th Place. 11:00AM — Wisconsin vs Northwestern
Championship Final. 1:00PM — Indiana vs Ohio State
Consolation Final. 3:00PM — Michigan State vs Illinois
5th Place. 5:00PM — Michigan vs Purdue