Column: IU has a shot to play for the Big Ten Championship

Despite being bloodied, bruised and embarrassed, the football players of the Big Ten Conference must still find reasons to continue playing at a high level.

Amazingly, the 116-year-old conference was knocked out of contention for a prized spot in this season’s BCS National Championship Game after the third week of the season, when the Michigan State Spartans fell to then-20th ranked Notre Dame.

Sadly enough, it was the first of the six major conferences to see its chances of reaching college football’s grandest game come to a screeching halt.

Because the Big Ten has lost its place in the forefront of the national discussion, disheartening comparisons of commissioner Jim Delany’s conference to the Mid-American Conference have begun to circulate like juicy gossip in the halls of junior high schools across America.

Those comparisons aren’t inaccurate, either. It’s the staggering reality facing a once proud conference.

During the weekend, Iowa lost to MAC member Central Michigan, and Illinois lost to Western Athletic Conference member Louisiana Tech.

Don’t forget about Wisconsin, as the Badgers have clawed their way to narrow victories against Utah State, UTEP and Northern Iowa. I wouldn’t consider that a murderer’s row of opponents, giving those small margins of victory a bitter tinge of failure.

I know what you’re thinking. Conference play begins Saturday, which will bring healing to a wounded conference. If you’re of that thought process, I strongly encourage you to rethink your stance.

Ohio State, the presumptive top team in the conference, is ineligible to play in the Big Ten title game in December. The same is true for Penn State, which finds itself in the bottom of an impossibly deep well of sanctions in the wake of the child sexual abuse scandal that changed that university forever.

This leaves viewers with the very real chance that IU will be in the thick of the chase to represent the Leaders Division at the conference title game Dec. 1 at Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium.

The thought of that scenario likely has Delany doubled over a trash can in his office, as the Hoosiers wouldn’t attract viewers from anywhere outside the state of Indiana. That conference title game was added to create yet another cash cow for the conference but would suffer a major setback with a nontraditional school competing.

The Hoosiers’ path to crashing that party may not be as difficult as some expected.

Entering the first week of conference play, Indiana has home dates against Michigan State, Ohio State, Iowa and Wisconsin as well as road contests against Northwestern, Navy, Illinois, Penn State and Purdue.

My predictions for those remaining games are as follows:

at Northwestern – L
v. Michigan State – L
v. Ohio State – L
at Navy – W
at Illinois – W
v. Iowa – W
v. Wisconsin – L
at Penn State – L
at Purdue – L

Should those predictions become a reality, the Hoosiers would find themselves sitting at 5-7 following the week of Thanksgiving, setting up for a legitimate chance of stealing a spot in the Big Ten title game.

However, the Hoosiers’ odds of pulling off such a remarkable feat are largely dependent on how Purdue fares down the stretch and if Wisconsin continues to self-destruct.

But what a sight it would be for these Indiana Hoosiers to be playing for a conference championship on national television during the first week of December.

It’s a pipe dream that, with enough luck, might just become a reality.

­— ckillore@indiana.edu