The Michigan Wolverines fell in stunning fashion to the Ohio State Buckeyes. Now, Northwestern and Ohio State are set to meet up in the Big Ten championship game.
After Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines lost an embarrassing game to Ohio State, there’s only one team from the Big Ten that could possibly make it into the College Football Playoffs. If the Big Ten wants to be represented and have one of its teams contend for a national title, the Buckeyes must beat the Northwestern Wildcats in the upcoming Big Ten championship game.
That puts a lot of pressure on the Buckeyes to win, but it also gives the Wildcats a chance to create even more chaos in a college football season that has been seemingly overflowing with it. Given that Northwestern has won seven of its last eight games, this matchup could potentially be an interesting one depending on how well the Wildcats perform. We’ve seen this team challenge some of the best in the country and we’ve also seen it struggle against some of the weakest in the Big Ten, as was the case this past weekend.
Finally, thankfully, the season is over for Rutgers. Fans of the Scarlet Knights have to be glad that this year is done and that the team can put it behind them. There were several times throughout the year where it seemed like Rutgers might be able to get a win here or there and make the situation seem like it was better than reality made things out to be. Rutgers lost to Indiana, Northwestern, and Michigan State by a combined 14 points. Now, the Scarlet Knights need to get some things figured out in the offseason and hopefully, next year won’t be as painful for them but head coach Chris Ash will return.
Illinois didn’t have a good season. In fact, the Fighting Illini had a pretty rough year. There were three separate occasions during the 2018 season in which Illinois gave up 63 points to the opposing team. Unsurprisingly, Illinois lost all three of those games. The Illini also lost five other games in addition to those. But, Lovie Smith’s team did win four games this season, technically more than this team has won at any other point in Smith’s tenure at Illinois. In fact, Illinois technically doubled its win total from a season ago and then they gave Smith a contract extension because of all the “progress” that’s been made.
At one point this season, Indiana was 4-1 and appeared promising on the surface. None of Indiana’s wins appeared all that impressive, but the Hoosiers seemed more than capable of making it into a bowl game and having something to celebrate this season.
After that 4-1 start, Indiana went on a stretch with five straight losses and ended the year losing six of its final seven games. Starting 4-1 and ending up at 5-7 is not a good thing. This past weekend, the only obstacle that interfered with Indiana’s ability to make it to a bowl game was Purdue. And Purdue won.