Big Ten Championship: What if Wisconsin shocks the world and beats Ohio State?

If Wisconsin upsets Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game would they go to the Rose Bowl? Would the Buckeyes still make the College Football Playoff?

Ohio State has been the best team in college football all season. Their resume is impressive, but what would happen if they lose to the Wisconsin Badgers in the Big Ten Championship Game on Saturday night?

If the Buckeyes play the way they have (like when they played Wisconsin in October) they will win easily and solidify their No. 1 ranking. But don’t count the Badgers out just yet. History has a strange way of repeating itself in college football, and Wisconsin has won rematches in the Big Ten Championship game before.

So close your eyes and imagine this.

It’s late at night on Dec. 7, 2019, and once again the Badgers have avenged a regular-season loss by winning the rematch in the Big Ten Championship game. This time though, they’ve shocked the college football world by beating the Ohio State Buckeyes, the No. 1 team in the country.

The Badgers would secure the Big Ten’s automatic invitation to the Rose Bowl. Yes, they would have won the Big Ten Championship and beaten the No. 1 team in the country. But they would not be headed to the playoff with two losses. The Rose Bowl, however, is a pretty nice consolation. The Rose Bowl is far, expensive and isn’t as exciting as a playoff spot but the California sunshine sure beats New York City’s Pinstripe Bowl in late-December.

But what about Ohio State?

This is where Badger fans would have a bone to pick with the committee. Despite losing to Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game, Ohio State would fall no further than No. 4. They would go to the College Football Playoff even without a conference championship.

Why? Ohio State has still been the most dominant and complete team in the country. The chronology of their games against Wisconsin doesn’t matter. The committee would only see that Wisconsin and Ohio State each beat each other once this season, with no real attention paid to when each of those games was.

It’s a win-win for Ohio State. They could win, be Big Ten champions and go to the playoff. Or they could lose, have an impressive loss against a conference champion and still go to the playoff. The committee would keep Ohio State in the playoff since they beat Wisconsin, the Big Ten champion, during the regular season.

You can open your eyes now.

To summarize, if Wisconsin wins they’ll go to the Rose Bowl and Ohio State will still go to the playoff. However, this scenario would definitely shake up the rest of the Big Ten’s bowl destinations.

With a 10-2 record, No.10 ranking and impressive resume, Penn State is currently projected to go to the Rose Bowl. In this scenario though, the Lions would likely end up in a non-NY6 bowl somewhere in Florida. If they are able to sneak into the Orange Bowl, it would bump Florida and Alabama out of the New Year’s 6.

Of course, a lot depends on what shakes out on championship weekend. The rest of the Big Ten and most of the teams hovering around the top-10 will be directly impacted by not just their own conference’s championship game, but some of the others too.

But one thing you can count on is that, as long as the Buckeyes don’t get killed, Ohio State has already secured themselves a spot in the playoff regardless of what happens in the Big Ten Championship game.

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