The Big Ten conference championship football game is set for Saturday with the Michigan State Spartans and Iowa Hawkeyes and a spot in the College Football Playoff is likely on the line. The game will be at Lucas Oil Stadium and Iowa comes in with an undefeated record and will be looking to take the conference title to try and complete a perfect season.
Michigan State comes into the game with one loss and with the Spartans ranked at number five and Iowa at number four, this game likely will put one of the teams into the College Football Playoff. Alabama, Clemson and Oklahoma look like they will be the other teams in the mix and Michigan State would love to pull off a win to end Iowa's perfect season. Michigan State comes in after winning against Penn State and Ohio State over the past two weeks, while Iowa finished the regular season with wins against Nebraska and Purdue.
Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio said that the Spartans are confident that they can win over Iowa and that the team will not take anything for granted coming into the game. Iowa has not played for the Big Ten title game since the championship matchup started five years ago and they will get the chance to improve to 13-0 with a victory on Saturday. Michigan State had a strong offensive performance against Penn State with 55 points last time out and Dantonio knows that putting up numbers like that against Iowa will be very difficult.
Iowa has a strong secondary and Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook will have to find a way to get the ball deep and it's likely the team will try and stay away from Desmond King, who was an all-conference pick this season. Cook comes in with a winning track record at MSU with a 33-4 mark as a starter and he now has the chance to add another title to his resume of he can lead the team to a win. Cook dealt with a shoulder injury earlier in the season and this will be his second game since coming back.
Cook comes into the game with 24 touchdowns and just four interceptions this season and the turnover battle could be what ends up tipping the scales in this game. CJ Beathard has played well for the Hawkeyes and he comes in with 2354 yards passing and 14 touchdowns with just three picks this season. The running backs for both teams have been productive, with LJ Scott scoring 10 touchdowns this season for the Spartans and Jordan Canzeri putting up 12 touchdowns while rushing for over 950 yards.
The two teams are evenly matched and this could be one of the best matchups of the conference championship weekend. Prediction: Michigan State wins 27-24 over Iowa.
