The Big Ten Championship game is now officially set in stone and it has the number two ranked Ohio State Buckeyes taking on the 11th ranked Michigan State Spartans and the matchup will be on Saturday, December 7 from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis and will start up just past 8:15 PM live on TV on FOX.
The game has plenty of national implications for both teams, as a BCS berth is on the line, as is a national championship appearance for the Buckeyes if they can pull out a win. Ohio State was nearly upset at the last second by the Michigan Wolverines in their rivalry game on Saturday, but after Devin Gardner led his team to the possible game tying score, coach Brady Hoke went for two to try and get the win. The ending of the game was the most exciting of the day until a little game called the Iron Bowl happened, but OSU was able to pick off the pass and that locked in an undefeated regular season for Urban Meyer's team for the second year in a row.
The Buckeyes come into the game 12-0 on the season and now they need one more game to set up a potential national championship with Florida State, who will be playing against Duke in the ACC conference championship game. The Buckeyes are looking like the favorites against Michigan State, but at 11-1 the Spartans have a great defense and that could be enough to shut down OSU and Braxton Miller. Carlos Hyde showed how skilled and tough of a runner he is with 226 yards against Michigan, but Devin Gardner passed for over 450 yards and while Michigan State is not a high powered offense, OSU has to be worried about their pass defense heading into the matchup.
This season Miller led the team with 1,759 yards passing and 21 touchdowns, while he also added 891 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground to rank second on the team to Hyde. This season Hyde led the team with nearly 1,300 yards and 14 touchdowns and those two players will be the main focus in the Big Ten title game. The Ohio State offense gains well over 500 yards per game and stopping the run will be tough for MSU, as the Buckeyes gain over 300 per contest to rank second in the nation and they are also third in scoring with nearly 58 points per game. The defense is also tough, allowing just 20 points per contest.
The Spartans come into the game after a win over Minnesota and in the past two weeks the team has allowed just nine points while scoring 44 and now they have the matchup with Ohio State. The team comes in averaging nearly 200 yards per game on the ground and they are scoring nearly 30 points per game this season as well. The defense is in the top five with 11 points allowed per game and the biggest question for MSU is if they can stop the run. The game is on Saturday, December 7, 2013 on Fox starting up with coverage at 8:00 pm ET.