The 1996 Big Ten Conference football season was the 101st season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Ten Conference and was a part of the 1996 NCAA Division I-A football season.
Regular season With 7-1 conference marks, Ohio State and Northwestern shared the Big Ten title in 1996. Since Northwestern had just represented the league in the Rose Bowl the year before, Ohio State was granted the opportunity to face Arizona State in the 1997 Rose Bowl, their first since the 1984 team. Ohio State would finish the season ranked No. 2 in the AP Poll and Northwestern at No. 15.
No. 7 Penn State and No. 18 Iowa tied for third with 6-2 conference records. No. 20 Michigan and Michigan State tied for fifth place at 5-3.
Wisconsin came in seventh at 3-5 (8-5 overall), followed by eighth-place Purdue at 2-6 (3-8 overall).
Minnesota, Indiana, and Illinois all went 1-7 in conference play, going 4-7, 3-8, and 2-9 overall, respectively.
Bowl games
Seven Big Ten teams played in bowl games, going 4-3 overall. The conference did not participate in the Bowl Alliance:
Rose Bowl: No. 4 Ohio State 20 No. 2 Arizona St. 17 1/1/972008 Rose Bowl Program , 2008 Rose Bowl. Accessed January 26, 2008.Fiesta Bowl: No. 7 Penn State 38 No. 20 Texas 15 1/1/97: No. 9 Tennessee 48 No. 11 Northwestern 28 1/1/97Outback Bowl: No. 16 Alabama 17No. 15 Michigan 14 1/1/97Sun Bowl: Stanford 38 Michigan State 0 12/31/96Alamo Bowl: No. 21 Iowa 27 Texas Tech 0 12/29/96Copper Bowl: Wisconsin 38Utah 10 12/27/96 *Note: shown rankings were prior to the bowl game matchups.
1997 NFL draft
References