Ohio State Leads All Teams in Big Ten Championship Game Wins but Needs Help to Reach the Final One

When the Big Ten crowns its last football champion in Indianapolis on Dec. 5, Ohio State will still own more Big Ten Championship Game wins than any other school. The Buckeyes just are not likely to be there to add to the total.

The Big Ten announced Monday that this season's game will be the 16th and final one, with the College Football Playoff moving to 24 teams in 2027 and the Power 4 title games going away. That turns the record book into a closed list, and Ohio State sits at the top of it with five wins. But the Buckeyes' last title game victory came in 2020, and unless they get help over the next three weeks, they will go 0 for the final six.

Ohio State's Record in the Big Ten Championship Game

Ohio State is 5-2 in the game, and its seven appearances are the most of any school, according to the Big Ten. All 15 games have been played at Lucas Oil Stadium.

• 2013: Michigan State 34, Ohio State 24. The loss ended Ohio State's 24-game winning streak under Urban Meyer.
• 2014: Ohio State 59, Wisconsin 0. Cardale Jones won MVP in his first career start, and the Buckeyes went on to win the first College Football Playoff.
• 2017: Ohio State 27, Wisconsin 21.
• 2018: Ohio State 45, Northwestern 24.
• 2019: Ohio State 34, Wisconsin 21.
• 2020: Ohio State 22, Northwestern 10. Trey Sermon was named MVP in a game played Dec. 19 during the pandemic season.
• 2025: Indiana 13, Ohio State 10.

Michigan is next with three wins, all from 2021 to 2023. Wisconsin and Michigan State have two each, and Penn State, Oregon and Indiana have one apiece. That means no school can catch Ohio State before the game is retired. Even a Michigan win in Indianapolis would only get the Wolverines to four, and at 2-4 in conference play, Michigan is not in the race.

The Final Six Have Belonged to Someone Else

The Buckeyes' four straight titles from 2017 to 2020 are the high point of the game's history for any program. What followed has been the opposite.

Michigan beat Ohio State in four straight regular-season finales from 2021 through 2024, and the Wolverines took the East Division spot and won the title game each of the first three years. In 2024, Ohio State lost to Michigan again and missed the game entirely, then won the national championship anyway. Oregon beat Penn State 45-37 for the Big Ten title that year.

Last December, Ohio State finally got back to Indianapolis after beating Michigan 27-9, but Indiana won 13-10 in a game between the top two teams in the country. That made five straight Big Ten Championship Games without an Ohio State win, and 2026 is the last chance to change that.

Why Ohio State Needs Help in 2026

The math is simple. Ohio State is 6-3 overall and 4-2 in the Big Ten after losing 30-18 at USC on Oct. 31 and 41-28 to Oregon on Saturday, both with true freshman Luke Fahey starting in place of the injured Julian Sayin. The Buckeyes host Northwestern on Nov. 14, play at Nebraska on Nov. 21 and host Michigan on Nov. 28. Winning all three gets them to 7-2.

That is not enough on its own. Since the Big Ten dropped divisions in 2024, the game has matched the top two teams in the conference standings, and two teams are ahead of Ohio State right now:

• UCLA (6-0): can finish 9-0 and still plays Illinois, Michigan and USC.
• Indiana (5-1): can finish 8-1 and still plays USC, Washington and Purdue.

Six teams are tied for third at 4-2, Ohio State, Oregon, Iowa, Wisconsin, USC and Illinois, according to Badgers Wire's standings through Week 10.

What Has to Happen

Ohio State's best asset is the games it already won. The Buckeyes beat Indiana 19-15 in Bloomington on Oct. 17, won 31-14 at Iowa on Oct. 3 and beat Illinois 42-19 in Columbus in September. Under Big Ten rules, a two-team tie is broken by head-to-head results, so Ohio State would win a tie with any of those three. The problem is the two teams it lost to, Oregon and USC, and Wisconsin and UCLA, which are not on its schedule.

Ohio State On SI laid out the cleanest path. It starts with UCLA winning out, which would put the Bruins in the game at 9-0 and hand Illinois and USC another loss. From there, Ohio State needs to win out and needs Indiana, Oregon and Wisconsin to each lose at least once. In that scenario, Ohio State would hold a head-to-head win over every team it could tie at 7-2.

The help could start this week. Ohio State fans will be rooting for UCLA against Illinois on Friday, then USC against Indiana, Michigan against Oregon and Maryland against Wisconsin on Saturday. Other paths exist, but nearly all of them require Indiana to lose and both Oregon and USC to fall short of 7-2.

The Last Chance at the Last Game

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said in July that the conference would give up its title game for a 24-team playoff, telling reporters at media days, "we'd be willing to make that trade." On Monday, he thanked Indianapolis and the fans "who helped make the Big Ten Football Championship Game a marquee event each season since its inception in 2011." The Big Ten said it is still finalizing how it will determine its football champion in future seasons.

Whatever happens on Dec. 5, Ohio State's place in the game's history is set. The Buckeyes won the most titles, made the most appearances and produced the most lopsided result, the 59-0 rout of Wisconsin in 2014. The only thing left to decide is whether the program that owned the game in its middle years gets one more shot at it on the way out, or watches the final six go by without a trophy.

Follow all of Ohio State's coverage on Undrafted.

Sources: Big Ten Conference; Ohio State Athletics; ESPN; Ohio State Buckeyes On SI (Brian Schaible); Badgers Wire; Eleven Warriors; Wikipedia. More college football coverage on Undrafted.