Big Ten tiebreaker scenarios: How Ohio State, Indiana, Michigan can reach title game

The 2025 college football season won't wrap up for another week, but as Week 13 approaches, there's been a frantic rush to try to figure out conference championship game scenarios and tiebreakers.

With so many games left to play, it's a lot to try to parse through, to put it mildly.

In the Big Ten, that situation's no different.

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As they have for much of the season, No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana lord over the rest of the conference, with undefeated overall and Big Ten records. Barring a surprising result or two, the most likely outcome from these next two weeks is that the Buckeyes and Hoosiers will be facing off on Saturday, Dec. 6 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Still, several other teams have hope. No. 5 Oregon, No. 16 USC and No. 17 Michigan all remain in the hunt, each with 6-1 record in league play, but they'll not only need to win out, but have several games elsewhere in the conference go in their favor.

So where do things stand?

Though not every potential outcome or scenario is detailed below — for your sanity and mine — here's a look at each team's path to a Big Ten championship berth ahead of Week 13.

Big Ten championship tiebreakers

Indiana (11-0, 8-0 Big Ten)

• Path to Big Ten championship game: Beat Purdue or Ohio State beats Michigan

The Hoosiers' road to the Big Ten championship game is the simplest, both because of their undefeated record and the fact they have just one game remaining in conference play.

If Indiana beats Purdue, its 2-9 rival that it will be a sizable favorite over, it will get one of the two title-game slots. Should it fall to the Boilermakers and be on the wrong end of one of the biggest upsets in the sport this year, it still would only need to much help to finish in the top two of the conference standings. All it would need is for Ohio State to beat Michigan. The result is this weekend's USC-Oregon game is irrelevant for the Hoosiers, who own tiebreakers over both the Ducks and Trojans.

Ohio State (10-0, 7-0 Big Ten)

• Path to Big Ten championship game: Beat Rutgers and Michigan or lose one game and get a little help

The Buckeyes have been dominant this season, winning each of their past nine games by at least 18 points. If that tear continues in their final two games, they'll finish the season undefeated and earn a spot in the Big Ten title game.

Should they drop a game, there's still a path to Indianapolis, though they'd need quite a bit of help.

For the sake of clarity, let's assume Ohio State will handle business this weekend against a 5-5 Rutgers team it's favored to beat by 31.5 points. If coach Ryan Day's team loses to Michigan for the fifth-consecutive season, it would be in a much trickier position, with the Wolverines, who only have one conference loss to this point, holding a head-to-head tiebreaker (and this is assuming Michigan beats Maryland in Week 13). There are a few scenarios that would still get them into the title game, one of which would be Purdue shocking Indiana and Oregon beating USC before losing to Washington

Maryland knocking off Michigan as a 14-point home underdog this weekend would open things up a bit for the Buckeyes. Should that happen, Ohio State could lose to the Wolverines, but still get to the championship game if Oregon beats USC but loses to Washington.

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Oregon (9-1, 6-1 Big Ten)

• Path to Big Ten championship game: Beat USC and Washington, Ohio State loses once

Despite being No. 5 in the latest College Football Playoff selection committee rankings, Oregon might actually have the most difficult path to the championship game of any of the three teams with one loss in Big Ten play.

An Oct. 11 loss to Indiana guarantees that the Ducks will be behind the Hoosiers in the conference standings due to a head-to-head tiebreaker, even if Purdue stuns Curt Cignetti's team in Week 14.

Despite the challenges facing them, Oregon's Big Ten championship hopes are actually pretty straightforward. The Ducks will have to win out, beating No. 16 USC and Washington, and then hope that Ohio State loses to Rutgers or Michigan. With a loss to either of those teams, Oregon would own a common conference opponent record tiebreaker over the Buckeyes.

USC (8-2, 6-1 Big Ten)

• Path to Big Ten championship game: Beat Oregon and UCLA, Michigan beats Ohio State

The Trojans face a tall challenge this weekend with a game at Oregon, where they'll be a 9.5-point favorite. They'll need to win that game and then beat rival UCLA in a matchup in which they'll likely be a heavy favorite.

Beyond that, they would only need Michigan to beat No. 1 Ohio State, even if the Wolverines lose the previous week against Maryland.

Michigan (8-2, 6-1 Big Ten)

• Path to Big Ten championship game: Beat Maryland and Ohio State, USC loses one of its final two games

The Wolverines' simplest path would require beating Maryland and Ohio State, the latter of which will obviously be a much bigger challenge than the former. That alone won't get them in the Big Ten title game, as they'd also need USC, which owns a head-to-head tiebreaker over them, to lose to either Oregon or UCLA.

There's another, less likely scenario in which Michigan and USC both win out, but Indiana falls to Purdue, which would send the Wolverines and Trojans to Indianapolis by virtue of a complicated series of tiebreakers.

Big Ten tiebreaker rules

Here's how the Big Ten's tiebreaker rules work, in order, according to the conference:

1. The tied teams will be compared based on head-to-head matchups during the regular season.

2. The tied teams will be compared based on record against all common conference opponents.

3. The tied teams will be compared based on record against common opponents with the best conference record and proceeding through the common conference opponents based on their order of finish within the conference standings.

4. The tied teams will be compared based on the best cumulative conference winning percentage of all conference opponents.

5. The representative will be chosen based on the highest ranking by SportSource Analytics (team Rating Score metric) following the regular season.

6. The representative will be chosen by random draw among the tied teams conducted by the Commissioner or designee.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Big Ten tiebreaker scenarios: How each team can reach title game