The inaugural Big Ten Championship football game is all set for next Saturday after the Wisconsin Badgers rolled over the Penn State Nittany Lions 45-7 on Saturday afternoon to clinch the top spot in the Big Ten's Leaders Division and a shot at the conference title.
While deciding the Leaders Division went down to the last week of the regular season, the Michigan State Spartans spent yesterday tuning up for the big game with a 31-17 win over Northwestern after locking up the Big Ten's Legends Division last week.
The Spartans (10-2, 7-1 Legends) and Badgers (10-2, 6-2 Leaders) will meet next Saturday for an 8:17PM kickoff at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis to decide the conference championship and a berth in the Rose Bowl. One can only hope the rematch between the teams comes close to their epic regular season game in East Lansing that was literally decided by the nose of the football.
On October 22nd, Michigan State handed Wisconsin their first loss of the season when Spartans' receiver Keith Nichol caught a 44-yard pass from quarterback Kirk Cousins on the last play of the game, then barely muscled the nose of the football over the goal line to give the Spartans a 37-31 win.
Big Ten Championship Game Facts
Date: Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011
Time: 8:17 p.m. ET
Television: FOX Sports
Site: Indianapolis, IN
Facility: Lucas Oil Stadium
Surface: FieldTurf
Capacity: 67,604
For further reading, news, discussion and more, visit The Only Colors for the Spartans and Bucky's 5th Quarter for the Badgers. Stay tuned to SB Nation's college football news hub for more.