For the first time, every Big Ten team is slated to take play on conference championship weekend with the conference unveiling this year's Championship Week schedule, featuring seven games including multiple rivalry matchups.
The original intent of the championship week schedule was to match east and west teams in a game based on their regular divisional standings, and that is still the case for some matchups.
In other cases, the Big Ten has instead opted to use this week as a sort of flex week, allowing teams to make up previously canceled rivalry matchups. Indiana and Purdue will play for the Old Oaken Bucket this week while Wisconsin and Minnesota will play their rivalry game for Paul Bunyan's Axe.
Based on this scheduling, it's likely that if Ohio State was not eligible to play in the Big Ten Championship Game, the conference would have rescheduled the Buckeyes' annual game against Michigan, which was canceled due to COVID-19 concerns at Michigan.
Instead, Ohio State will take on Northwestern in the Big Ten Championship game on Saturday at noon.
