What would the Big Ten Championship Game be if the conference still had divisions

This offseason, the Big Ten expanded to 18 teams with the additions of UCLA, USC, Oregon, and Washington. With an 18-team conference spread from New Jersey to Los Angeles, it was no longer feasible to have the east and west divisions that divided the conference for years. That means the top two teams in the conference, Oregon and Penn State will play for the Big Ten title in Indianapolis this Saturday. However, what if the conference was still split down the middle, who would be meeting for the conference crown?

If the Big Ten had not expanded and remained in two divisions, the East would have been loaded again. The Big Ten East, which featured Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State, was always the better of the two conferences, and in 2024 it would have featured the top three teams in the league, 11-1 Penn State, 11-1 Indiana, and 10-2 Ohio State. By tiebreakers, Penn State would been the East’s representative, but in that reality, the Nittany Lions would have played Indiana and Michigan, two teams it avoided on the schedule this year. 

The Big Ten Champion never came from the Big Ten West. The last team that ended up in the Big Ten West that won the conference was Wisconsin in 2012 when the league was divided into the Leaders and Legends divisions. In 2024, the Big Ten West’s representative in Indianapolis, assuming that Oregon was still in the Pac-12 would be Illinois. The Fighting Illini finished the 2024 regular season at 9-3 with a 6-3 conference record and losses to Oregon, Penn State, and Minnesota. 

So, if the Big Ten still had divisions, Penn State would be meeting Illinois to play for the conference title. Illinois has won 15 Big Ten titles in its program history but has not won the Big Ten title since 2001. Penn State joined the conference in 1993 and has won it four times, most recently in 2016 against Wisconsin.