2012 Big Ten Football Championship Game

The 2012 Big Ten Football Championship Game was a college football game. It was played on December 1, 2012, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, to determine the 2012 champion of the Big Ten Conference. It was played between the Wisconsin Badgers of the Leaders Division and the Nebraska Cornhuskers of the Legends Division. Wisconsin defeated Nebraska, 70–31.

The game was the second football championship game ever played in the Big Ten's 116-year history; the Big Ten expanded to twelve teams the year before thus becoming eligible under NCAA rules which, at that time, required conferences to have a membership of at least 12 to have a conference championship game. The game was played in prime time and televised by Fox, with kickoff scheduled for 8:17 PM Eastern Time. In only the second year of the Big Ten Championship game, one team entered the game unranked in the BCS standings, AP poll, and Coaches' poll.

Teams
The two teams faced each other in the regular season, with Nebraska winning 30–27.

Nebraska
The Cornhuskers, led by fifth-year head coach Bo Pelini, finished the regular season as the champion of the Legends Division. Nebraska finished the regular season with an overall record of 10–2 and a Big Ten record of 7–1; the team's lone conference loss was against Ohio State, 38–63.

To date, this is Nebraska's lone appearance in the Big Ten Championship Game.

Wisconsin
Wisconsin finished third place in the Leaders division, but division champion Ohio State and second-place Penn State were ineligible to play in the championship game because of postseason bans. Teams that play in the conference championship game must be eligible for the postseason. The Badgers lost to both Ohio State and Penn State in the regular season, with both losses coming in overtime.

The 2012 Big Ten football championship game would be the last time Bret Bielema coached the Badgers. He departed Wisconsin three days after the Big Ten championship game to accept the head coaching position at Arkansas. Wisconsin's Athletic Director, and former football head coach, Barry Alvarez went on to coach the Badgers at the 2013 Rose Bowl against Stanford.

Individual statistics
Sources:

Records
Montee Ball took over as the record holder for Football Bowl Subdivision "career rushing touchdowns record" from Travis Prentice with 76 touchdowns (Ball scored one touchdown in the 2013 Rose Bowl thus extending the record). Wisconsin set multiple school records in the game; first by scoring eight rushing touchdowns during the game. The second school record for Wisconsin was having two 200-yard rushers in one game. Nebraska set a record for the most rushing touchdowns allowed in a game. Wisconsin's redshirt freshman running back Melvin Gordon ran for a career-high of 216 yards on just nine possessions, averaging 24 yards per carry.