This year marks eight years of the Big Ten Championship Game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, and its matches have produced both classics and duds. While this weekend’s match may not captivate national audiences as much, it should still provide enjoyable viewing.
Michigan won thanks to their dominant second-half run game led by Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards, but this wasn’t an utter blowout victory.
Michigan Wolverines
Michigan Wolverines have already achieved two of their four goals this season by winning the Big Ten championship and earning one of two College Football Playoff seeds. They are close to realizing an even loftier objective: national supremacy. A victory over Purdue Boilermakers would clinch it again without fighting hard to secure their prize; winning it by restricting Boilermaker’s scoring opportunities would seal it once and for all.
Michigan opened up with an early advantage, taking an early lead after J.J. McCarthy connected with Luke Schoonmaker for a 40-yard touchdown pass. Donovan Edwards scored 27 yards out for another touchdown, giving Michigan a 13-0 advantage at halftime. Michigan held firm on defense through the second half, only conceding one third-quarter touchdown.
Even after losing key defensive players like Blake Corum and Darius Slay, Michigan remains a premier team. Michigan has been one of the nation’s premier contenders, boasting both an effective running game and passing attack that has scored on nearly one of every four trips this year.
Michigan will return to the College Football Playoff after being absent since 1997 thanks to their win against Purdue Boilermakers, joining Ohio State and Wisconsin, who both are expected to make an appearance.
The Wolverines won their fourth-straight game against Purdue University and five out of seven overall, fuelling growing speculation about them as potential national champions. Michigan will complete an incredible feat this season by posting wins over every Big Ten opponent, an accomplishment only achieved by any college football team – the 1948 Michigan Wolverines! That team eventually went on to win a national title, with all NCAA selecting organizations led by the Associated Press recognizing them. This year, six organizations (conducted by Coaches Poll and USA Today/ESPN) picked Michigan, while 13 (led by Coaches Poll and USA Today/ESPN) chose Nebraska instead as national champions.
Purdue Boilermakers
This game determines who represents the Big Ten at the Rose Bowl each season. Furthermore, its winner becomes the Big Ten champion and receives the Stagg Championship Trophy. Each year at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, this game pits Michigan Wolverines against Purdue Boilermakers. Michigan a heavy favorite; however, Purdue is fighting hard to stay in contention and remain alive in 2022’s edition.
After two quarters, the game was tied at 24-24 before Hoosiers turnovers gave Purdue the edge. A junior college transfer, Mark Atkinson scored 18 points in his debut start for Purdue while helping limit star freshman Steve Alford of Indiana to only four.
Purdue’s Hudson Card made an early statement against Nebraska on Saturday with two touchdown passes – an 84-yarder to Deion Burks and a 2-yarder to Corey Coleman – in just 16 carries this game, including an 84-yarder thrown to Deion Burks, and 2-yarder tossed his way by running back Devin Mockobee on 16 attempts. RB Cardinal Card had only ever previously managed two touchdown throws this season before this contest. The running attack struggled greatly against them, with only 60 yards gained on 16 attempts.
Purdue used an aggressive second-half surge to command their game against Indiana, scoring on Tyrone Tracy’s kickoff return for a touchdown and adding two field goals from Ben Freehill for a 41-24 lead. Purdue’s defense held strong until its last three minutes when only Indiana scored once more touchdown.
This year marked the inaugural time that Purdue won a conference title since divisional play began in the Big Ten, after defeating Indiana on Nov. 26 with an overwhelming two-touchdown margin of victory and setting an all-new regular-season wins record in Big Ten history compared to Michigan teams.
Both East and West division titles are still up for grabs, making this game extremely intriguing to follow. Michigan and Ohio State both have the opportunity to secure their positions by beating each other this Saturday; Iowa can do the same by picking up an upset win against Ohio State at home.
Ohio State Buckeyes
Ohio State Buckeyes should not be taken lightly this season, yet some questions remain. They lost three front seven starters and will need a new starting quarterback while also lacking their most accomplished linebacker and running back, creating challenges when facing Michigan Wolverines in game one.
Ohio State kicked off their season with an impressive 23-3 victory against Indiana. Although their offense struggled early, it eventually found their stride by the second half. Kyle McCord worked at times, yet their offensive line held firm. Devin Brown made his first collegiate pass attempt (incomplete). Denzel Burke recorded two pass breakups. Steele Chambers led Ohio State with six tackles, while Sonny Styles registered a half tackle for loss.
Miyan Williams and Chip Trayanum each found the end zone, with Trayanum’s impressive running performance earning him MVP honors on this day. Both had over 100 yards for themselves, while Kyle McCord completed 20 for 33 passes with 239 yards, one interception, and no touchdowns scored.
There were plenty of uncertainties surrounding Ohio State’s play calling in this game, including their play calling strategy in terms of snaps split between quarterbacks McCord and Devin Brown and how carries would be distributed among their deep stable of backs. Furthermore, questions were posed about who their defensive backs would be and whether or not they’d rotate frequently enough.
Larry Johnson managed a deep rotation on defense, giving all 11 starters significant playing time. Defensive end Tuimoloau and defensive tackle Sawyer proved most valuable to Ohio State, with Tuimoloau playing nearly the entire first quarter and most of the rest of the contest; Sawyer only played about two-thirds of their 55 defensive snaps.
The Buckeyes’ secondary was also strong, with Ja’Had Carter and Malik Hartford fighting for free time at free safety, Davison Igbinosun starting alongside Malik Hartmon at cornerback – Igbinosun dominating more frequently than his counterpart.
Iowa Hawkeyes
Iowa Hawkeyes are on the cusp of winning another consecutive Big Ten West crown and qualifying for college football playoffs. They need one victory against the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Saturday to clinch it and avoid sharing it with Michigan in the head-to-head tiebreaker. Unfortunately, Iowa will need to overcome injuries and inexperience to make Indianapolis.
This game was an intense, cold-weather, run-game dominated physical fight between two bitter rivals. Both teams struggled with turnovers, but Iowa managed to overcome them to limit Minnesota’s offense and secure victory – here are some of the best social media reactions!
Iowa women’s basketball will look to extend its success at the Big Ten tournament to an NCAA tournament run, beginning by defeating South Carolina – something it has yet to do during tournament play – before moving on to South Florida for another matchup that could send them into the Final Four. They could reach it if they can pull off such an upset victory!
Iowa Hawkeyes must overcome another challenging team to reach the championship game and face either 1-seed Virginia Tech or 3-seed LSU in a likely semifinal clash. They may already have done so successfully with notable upsets under their belts, but now must overcome another formidable foe before their season comes full circle with a match against Virginia Tech or LSU as possible opponents.
Iowa outscored Indiana Hoosiers 86-85 thanks to Ally Clark’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer. This win marked Iowa’s highest-scoring victory at the Big Ten tournament. It gave them their first-ever sweep against Hoosiers this season, making them 3-0 in Big Ten play and assuring them of a top-four finish in conference standings. Following that game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena against Maryland, it was another nailbiter where fans cheered when Clark completed her triple-double with another rebound – leaving Clark with a triple-double in hand. And fans went wild when she met her triple-double for another exciting finish as Clark finished off her triple-double with another rebound finish to close off her triple-double and set off another thrilling finish against Maryland for another thriller matchup that closed regular-season regular-season finale with another nail-biting comeback win enthrall season victory over time as regular-season standings finish guaranteeing them top four finish overall position.
