Things to watch this weekend in the Big Ten:
No. 4 Ohio State (5-1, 3-0 Big Ten) at No. 5 Indiana (6-0, 3-0), Saturday, noon ET (Fox)
The first matchup ever between top-five teams at Indiana’s Memorial Stadium features the winners of the last two national championships. Defending national champion Indiana rallied from a 17-6, fourth-quarter deficit to win 20-17 at Nebraska last week.
This is a rematch of last year’s Big Ten championship game that Indiana
won 13-10, snapping a 30-game skid in the series. Indiana has won its last 22 games, the longest such streak for any Bowl Subdivision team since Georgia won 29 straight from 2021-23.
Ohio State is a 3 ½-point favorite. The Buckeyes have beaten their last four opponents by an average of 31.3 points since losing 24-23 at then-No. 4 Texas.
Wisconsin (4-1, 2-0) at No. 12 UCLA (5-0, 3-0), Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET (NBC)
UCLA tries to remain unbeaten in its first full game since losing quarterback Nico Iamaleava to a knee injury. The Bruins will face a stout defense from the Badgers, who have won four straight games since the season-opening loss to Notre Dame.
No. 25 Northwestern (4-1, 1-1) at Michigan State (2-4, 0-3), Saturday, noon ET (Peacock)
Michigan State coach Pat Fitzgerald returns to his alma mater. Fitzgerald coached Northwestern to a 110-101 record from 2006-22 before a bitter exit. This also marks a homecoming of sorts for former Michigan State quarterback Aidan Chiles, who has thrown nine touchdown passes without an interception at Northwestern this season.
— UCLA RB Wayne Knight is the first Bruin to have at least one rushing touchdown in each of a season’s first five games since Maurice Jones-Drew in 2005. Knight ran for 103 yards and a touchdown against Oregon.
— Purdue RB Fame Ijeboi, who transferred from Minnesota, rushed for 195 yards and three touchdowns in the Boilermakers’ 41-13 blowout of his former team. According to Pro Football Focus, Ijeboi has forced 43 missed tackles to lead all FBS players.
— Indiana DL Tobi Osunsanmi has recorded a sack in five straight games.
— Penn State LB Tony Rojas is one of only nine Big Ten linebackers since 1956 to combine at least 22 career tackles for loss and six interceptions.
Indiana hasn’t posted a negative turnover margin in 30 straight games, the longest such streak for any FBS team since at least 1995. … The crowd of 114,419 for No. 19 Southern California’s 31-23 victory at Penn State was the fourth-largest attendance for any college football regular-season game in history. … Northwestern is in the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2020. … Ohio State enters Saturday’s game at Indiana owning a 29-4 road record since Ryan Day’s coaching tenure began in 2019. That matches Louisiana-Lafayette and Boise State for the highest total of road wins during that stretch. … No. 17 Iowa allowed limited Washington to minus-3 yards rushing in the Hawkeyes’ 41-24 triumph last week. It was the second time in coach Kirk Ferentz’s 28-year tenure that Iowa held an opponent to negative rushing yards. Kent State had minus-13 yards rushing in a 39-7 loss to Iowa in 2004.
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