The Ohio State football program had to play the number-two team in the country on Saturday in the Big Ten Championship Game. It was the first time in the history of the Big Ten Championship Game that the top two teams in the country met in that game.
Unfortunately, the Ohio State Buckeyes lost that game. They moved to the second seed in the College Football Playoff rankings. Now, they will play the winner of the Texas A&M and Miami game. Had they won the Big Ten title, they would have played an easier matchup.
There have been discussions about possibly doing away with conference championship games in the era of the 12-team Playoff. Yet, the ratings for the Big Ten Championship Game show why the game won't be going away anytime soon. They were truly massive.
Ohio State football team makes Big Ten Championship pull massive ratings
The ratings for the Big Ten Championship game have come out, and they are huge. The game had 18.33 million viewers, which was the most of any conference championship game throughout the entire weekend. In fact, it was the highest-viewed Big Ten Championship ever.
With ratings like these, it's going to be hard for networks to willingly give up these kinds of games. When they end up with marquee matchups like this, they aren't going to want to give away the viewership. Fans better get used to these sticking around until enough teams make a stink about them.
Losing this game didn't have massive consequences for the Buckeyes as it would have a few years ago. With the CFP at 12 teams, it wasn't an elimination game. In fact, it ended up not being one, even if it were still the four-team CFP, since Ohio State just dropped one spot.
Still, Ohio State wanted to win the game. Now, they will move on to try and win a national championship.