16 13 7 16 7 13 Date 5 December 2015 | 6 7 Iowa 3 Season 2015 | |
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Similar 2014 Big Ten Football, 2013 Big Ten Football, 2012 Big Ten Football, 2015 Cotton Bowl Cla, 2014 Rose Bowl | ||
The 2015 Big Ten Football Championship Game was a college football game that was played on December 5, 2015 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was the fifth annual Big Ten Football Championship Game and it determined the 2015 champion of the Big Ten Conference. The game featured the Michigan State Spartans, co–champions of the East Division, and the Iowa Hawkeyes, champions of the West Division. Michigan State defeated Iowa 16–13 to win its second Big Ten Championship in three years.
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History
The 2015 Championship Game was the fifth in the Big Ten's 120-year history, and the second to feature the conference's East and West division alignment. Iowa made its first appearance in the conference championship game, while Michigan State made its third appearance (L in 2011, W in 2013).
Iowa
Iowa came into the Big Ten Championship Game with a 12-0 record and a #4 ranking in the AP Poll. The Hawkeyes were led by junior QB C.J. Beathard and 2015 Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year, junior CB Desmond King, who tied the school record and led the Big Ten with 8 INT.
The Hawkeyes sat atop the Big Ten West division standings wire-to-wire. They opened conference play with a hard-nosed 10-6 victory over the Wisconsin Badgers in Madison, and overwhelmed the Northwestern Wildcats 40-10 in Evanston two weeks later. Iowa clinched the Big Ten West division by defeating the Purdue Boilermakers 40-20 in the home finale at Kinnick Stadium, and completed an unbeaten regular season by defeating the Nebraska Cornhuskers 28-20 in Lincoln.
Head coach Kirk Ferentz was named Big Ten Coach of the Year for the fourth time after guiding Iowa to its first unbeaten regular season in 93 years.