The current state of the Big Ten championship race is either the best endorsement of the expanded College Football Playoff or a searing indictment of the bloated conference model, depending on one’s perspective.
In Week 9, Oregon handled No. 20-ranked Illinois in a 38-9 rout. Penn State wore down Wisconsin at Camp Randall, winning 28-13. Indiana, playing backup quarterback Tayven Jackson, cruised past Washington, 31-17.
All three remain undefeated, with a month remaining in the regular season. Such a scenario, with one league boasting three undefeated teams, would make for an exciting November in the old college football landscape.
Of course, Oregon would not be competing for the top of the same conference as Penn State in the old landscape. But their “competition” is played by proxy, decided in aggregate. If they were to avoid each other in the regular season as a setup for a hypothetical Big Ten Conference, who wouldn’t be on board for that?
A championship game that feels like a true championship and keeps the spirit of the Rose Bowl Game alive as more than a hood ornament for the NFL-patterned playoff might be the perfect Year 1 justification for blowing up so much tradition.
And it could still happen. However, the Big Ten race could also conclude with each of Oregon, Penn State, and surprising Indiana at 12-0, as none of the three appear on the others’ schedules.
College football is in an experimental phase in which it certainly feels like the ultimate goal is for two main conferences — the Big Ten and SEC — to function as the AFC and NFC do in the NFL. If this is the pursuit, hopefully someone is taking notes and recognizing why the NFL conferences use divisions.
While it’s impossible for every team in an 18-team conference to play each other, a safeguard that prevents the disaster of three teams going undefeated through the regular season is a must.
Maybe that safeguard is the Big Ten bringing in All Elite Wrestling owner and Illinois alum Tony Khan to book a three-way match in Indianapolis.
Barring a pro wrestling-inspired three-team championship game, however, a scenario in which each of Oregon, Penn State, and Indiana goes 12-0 while one is left out of the Big Ten title tilt introduces this new-look conference with an ugly asterisk next to its inaugural champion.
If all three go 12-0 through Thanksgiving, it’s virtually certain that each will go to the Playoff. This sure beats the days when one team would be punished for playing an extra game or a scenario akin to the first four-team Playoff when deserving Baylor and TCU teams were somewhat arbitrarily skipped over.
However, the continued emphasis placed on making the Playoff above all else — perhaps even over winning a conference championship — strips away some of what made college football special.
Indiana factoring into this strange hypothetical is poetic in the context of what a Big Ten championship meant not so long ago. The coming offseason marks the 20th anniversary since IU hired the late Terry Hoeppner, a 21st-century product of the Miami (OH) Cradle of Coaches.
Upon his introduction as Hoosiers head coach, Coach Hep laid roses on the podium to emphasize his vision for Indiana football: win the Big Ten and return to the Rose Bowl Game for the first time since 1967.
Hoeppner died due to complications from a brain tumor two years later. He’s no doubt enjoying his view from the afterlife of Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers, fulfilling the expectations Hoeppner brought to Bloomington.
At the same time, there’s a sad irony in Indiana having its breakthrough season at a time when conferences in general, and the Big Ten specifically, have seemingly placed greater priority on getting teams to the Playoff than on laying out the most exciting conference championship race possible.
