College Football Playoff scenarios for 2019

#6 The winner of Wisconsin-Minnesota upsets Ohio State in the Big-10 Championship game

This year the competition appears to be a little more stiff

The Buckeyes have absolutely dominated the Big Ten title game the last three times they have gone there. The most memorable one came back in 2014 when they kind of fell off everybody’s radar due to J.T. Barrett getting hurt, but then squashed Wisconsin 59-0 en route to a national championship with Cardale Jones under center.

The following two years they missed the conference title game due to upset losses to the eventual Big Ten winners. In 2017 they re-matched with the Badgers, who actually came within one score in the fourth quarter, but it never really felt like the Buckeyes lost control. And then last season they toyed with #21 Northwestern in a three-touchdown game.

This year the competition appears to be a little more stiff. While Ohio State has already beaten four ranked Big Ten rivals, including a decisive 38-7 win over Wisconsin, this will be their most tested opponent yet. The Badgers might seem less dangerous after that initial matchup between the two teams, but let’s not forget that the score was 10-7 a few minutes into the second half. Outside of that the Badgers’ only other loss came at Illinois, when quarterback Jack Coan threw an inexplicably bad interception to set up the game-winning field goal. The Badgers have blown out Michigan and Michigan State by a combined score of 73-14 and they are among the elite when it comes to average scoring margin and difference in yards per play.

Minnesota on the other hand has been ranked in the top ten for three straight weeks now and is right behind all the conference title contenders at number eight. Despite keeping things close against inferior competition early on, they put themselves on the map with a win over then-number four Penn State and their only loss came by four points at Iowa, where we have seen plenty of really good teams lose in November. They have two NFL receivers, a strong offensive line and are top ten among Power Five teams in yards per play.

Whoever wins this weekend between those two teams would go to Lucas Oil Stadium as a worthy opponent and they have the ability to keep the ball from that explosive OSU offense, since they are both ranked in the top ten in terms of time of possession, but I don’t think either one of them is quite ready to battle with the nation’s number one team.

We just saw the Buckeyes do pretty much everything they could to give away the Penn State game and they still won by 11. Even if they didn’t win the Big Ten, they Buckeyes would most likely survive. For the other team this would be huge however, as it would probably earn them a spot in the Rose Bowl.