For the third consecutive season, the Big Ten will have a conference member playing for the national championship in football. That much was guaranteed with the College Football Playoff quarterfinals with Big Ten champion Indiana pounding Alabama in a Rose Bowl no Hoosier will ever forget and with Oregon blanking Big 12 champion Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day. Indiana and Oregon will now face each other in the semifinal round of the College Football Playoff with a matchup in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta next week, thus guaranteeing a Big Ten team will play for the national championship.
Thanks in part to the triumphs of Indiana and Oregon, not to mention Penn State’s victory in the Pinstripe Bowl, the Big Ten has clinched a winning bowl season and continues to reign supreme in the conference bowl standings. As things stand today, the Big Ten owns a postseason record of 9-4 overall and is 8-4 in bowl games played this postseason. That takes over the top spot in the conference bowl standings we have been tracking this postseason. The Big Ten has one more win than the ACC this postseason overall and in bowl games as both conferences still have a shot at being home to a national champion as well.
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The Big Ten got off to a strong start in the postseason with its bowl game matchups and cleaned up in the more favorable draws against non-power conference opponents. Washington blew out Boise State in the LA Bowl to get things started on the right foot for the conference, and Northwestern followed with a blowout of Central Michigan in the GameAbove Sports Bowl in Detroit. Minnesota later added an overtime victory over New Mexico for a third bowl victory over a non-power conference team, and Oregon opened the College Football Playoff at home with a win against Sun Belt Conference champion James Madison.
But the Big Ten continued to perform well against supposedly tougher competition. Penn State pulled away against Clemson in the Pinstripe Bowl despite being a slight underdog. Iowa and Illinois each won their bowl matchups against SEC opponents Vanderbilt and Tennessee, respectively to help clinch a winning record in bowl games against the SEC (3-1).
The Big Ten did take some hits in the later bowl games, of course. Michigan came up short against Texas in the Citrus Bowl, and Nebraska was no match for Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl. USC lost in overtime to TCU in the Alamo Bowl as well. The most notable loss, of course, was defending national champion Ohio State coming up short against Miami in the quarterfinal round of the College Football Playoff.
Indiana or Oregon will play for the national championship with the hopes of waving the Big Ten banner for a third straight season. Penn State fans were hoping it would be the Nittany Lions doing the honor at the beginning of. this season, of course. But no matter which team comes out of the Peach Bowl, the Big Ten will have a final postseason record no worse than 8-5 and would at worst break even in the postseason against power conference competition.
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The only conference to be guaranteed to have a better head-to-head record against the Big Ten will be the Big 12, which went 2-1 against the Big Ten this postseason. The Big Ten clinched a winning record against the SEC (3-1 with the possibility of facing Ole Miss in the national championship) and is currently tied with the ACC (with a potential matchup with Miami in the national championship).
You can see the full conference bowl standings and the full conference-vs-conference breakdown for every conference in our updated conference bowl standings.
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This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: Big Ten clinches winning bowl season with national title on deck
