7 takeaways from college football’s Week 13 include Big Ten stat champs

1. Wisconsin and Penn State will play for the Big Ten title.

The Badgers earned a trip to Indy despite a very tough schedule that included the two best teams in the East as crossover opponents. The Nittany Lions played Iowa and Minnesota but missed Wisconsin and Nebraska. Hence the problem with divisional play and conference championship games and whatnot.

2. Northwestern and Indiana won rivalry games (over Illinois and Purdue, respectively) to become bowl eligible. Maryland beat Rutgers to get to six wins, too.

The Big Ten is sending 10 teams to the postseason — and none of them are defending champion Michigan State, which finished 3-9.

3. In Big Ten play, Ohio State ended up leading the conference in seven statistical categories.

The Buckeyes were No. 1 in scoring (38.0 points per game), total offense (457.6 yards per game), rushing offense (242.4 ypg.), punting (41.2 net yards per punt), first downs (24.4 per game), third-down conversions (47.2 percent) and fourth-down conversions (71.4 percent).

4. Northwestern defensive end Ifeadi Odenigbo, a Centerville graduate, led the Big Ten in sacks during conference play with nine.

Curtis Samuel and Minnesota’s Rodney Smith tied for the Big Ten lead in touchdowns with 11, and Cam Johnston led the Big Ten in net punting (45.0).

🎩 (@NUFBFamily)

5. The playoff rankings still don’t matter this week, but they shouldn’t change much from last week since Michigan was the only team in the top 10 to lose.

Will Washington move into the top four after thrashing a ranked team on the road?

It doesn’t matter.

6. Championship games of interest to Ohio State fans this weekend: Big Ten, ACC, Pac 12.

Any one of three things would seem to remove any doubt the Buckeyes make the playoff: A Wisconsin win or an upset of Clemson (vs. Virginia Tech) or Washington (by Colorado).

Have to think Alabama is in no matter what at this point since Florida wouldn’t be a terrible loss and there are only three one-loss teams left in major conferences.

7. So who makes the playoff?

Ohio State might already be in, but it's hard to call anything a sure thing at this point (other than Alabama) because there's just not enough precedent from the committee (which has some new members this year).

The Buckeyes have a very strong resume (including more wins over teams that won at least nine games than anyone else in the country), but Penn State beat them (however flukily) and can enhance its case very much by beating a highly ranked team for a conference championship this weekend (as Ohio State did in 2014).

Ohio State’s resume is much stronger than Washington’s, but the Huskies can also improve their case by beating a highly ranked team for a conference championship (as Ohio.. well you get it).

It will likely come down to whether or not the committee simply considers Ohio State to be better than those teams. I thought they could have come to that conclusion last year, but they didn’t so there’s not much to do but wait and see.