The Ohio State football team needs help to make the Big Ten Championship

For the last decade or so, the Ohio State football team has known what they needed to do to make the Big Ten Championship. All they needed to do was win the Big Ten East. Most of the time, that meant beating Penn State and Michigan as the only truly tough games on the schedule.

This year, things are different. The divisions are no longer part of the Big Ten Conference. Now, it's just the two best teams that make that final game in Indianapolis. Ohio State was expected to be one of those two teams coming into the season. After the loss at Oregon, that has become harder.

The Buckeyes no longer control their own destiny to get to the Big Ten Championship. With unbalanced schedules, tiebreakers could come into play. The Ohio State Buckeyes need two teams in the Big Ten to lose in order make sure they have a shot to make it.

The Ohio State football team needs Illinois and Wisconsin to lose at least once

For the rest of the season, the Buckeyes will be rooting against both Wisconsin and Illinois. If either one of them wins out and Oregon continues to be undefeated, the Buckeyes will be left out of the Big Ten Championship Game. If both of them win out, they'll be out too.

Looking at their schedules, Wisconsin still has to play both Penn State and Oregon. It's extremely unlikely that they win either of those games. Winning both of those games is almost impossible. Ohio State should feel good about what the Badgers have ahead of them.

Illinois, who almost lost to Purdue last week, plays Michigan and Oregon in each of the next two weeks. It's extremely unlikely that they win both of those games as well. They are a better team than Wisconsin is though, so they are more of a threat to win out.

None of that matters if the Ohio State football team doesn't win out. They still have to travel to Happy Valley and win The Game for the first time since 2019. Doing those two things is not an easy task.