Indiana football clinches spot in 2025 Big Ten championship game
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BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football clinched a spot in the 2025 Big Ten title game on Friday night with a 56-3 win over Purdue at Ross-Ade Stadium.
This will be the No. 2 Hoosiers’ (12-0, 9-0 Big Ten) first appearance in the conference championship game in program history. They have to wait for the outcome of Saturday’s games to see who they will play at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 6.
Indiana could earn the No. 1 overall seed in the College Football Playoff and a spot in the Rose Bowl as the highest-ranked Big Ten team — the conference still has a contractual tie-in with the bowl — if it were to win in Indianapolis next week. The top four seeds in the CFP rankings earn first-round byes.
The program has won just two Big Ten titles (1945 and 1967) in program history, but the one in ’67 was a three-way tie with Purdue and Minnesota and the conference voted IU into the Rose Bowl that year.
Indiana would have made the Big Ten title game in 2020 if the conference hadn’t voted to alter its eligibility rules and allow a Ohio State team that played in four conference games — one was a win over the Hoosiers — to play in the game.
This year, there’s nothing standing in IU’s way at having a chance to bring home the Amos Alonzo Stagg Championship Trophy.
Who will Indiana football play in the Big Ten title game?
Indiana will be scoreboard watching on Saturday to see who its opponent will be next weekend in Indianapolis. The conference released seven different clinching scenarios, but IU’s win eliminated four of those. Ohio State, Michigan and Oregon all have paths to the championship game depending on the outcome of Saturday’s games.
Here’s the list of possible outcomes:
- Indiana will play Ohio State if OSU defeats Michigan.
- Indiana will play Oregon if Michigan beats Ohio State and the Ducks defeat Washington.
- Indiana will play Michigan if the Wolverines upset OSU and Oregon losses to Washington.
Where is the 2025 Big Ten title game?
The Big Ten’s 15 annual title game will be played on Saturday, Dec. 6, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The game will be televised on FOX with the kickoff set for 8 p.m. The Indianapolis Colts’ home venue has hosted the conference’s championship game since its inception in 2011.
Oregon won the Big Ten title in its first year in the conference last year with a 45-37 win over Penn State in the title game.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana football headed to Big Ten title game for first time
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