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2016 Big Ten Conference football season

2016 Big Ten Conference football season
Big Ten Conference logo (2012).svg
League NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision
Sport Football
Duration September 1, 2016
through January 2017
Number of teams 14
TV partner(s) ABC, ESPN2, ESPN Inc., Big Ten Network, FOX (championship game)
2017 NFL Draft
Top draft pick Marshon Lattimore
Picked by New Orleans Saints, 11th
Regular season
Season MVP Saquon Barkley, Penn State & J.T. Barrett, Ohio State
East Division champions Penn State, Ohio State (co-champions)
West Division champions Wisconsin
Championship Game
Champions Penn State
  Runners-up Wisconsin
Finals MVP Trace McSorley, Penn State (QB)
Football seasons
← 2015
2017 →
2016 Big Ten football standings
Conf     Overall
Team   W   L         W   L  
East Division
No. 7 Penn State xy$   8 1         11 3  
No. 6 Ohio State x^   8 1         11 2  
No. 10 Michigan   7 2         10 3  
Indiana   4 5         6 7  
Maryland   3 6         6 7  
Michigan State   1 8         3 9  
Rutgers   0 9         2 10  
West Division
No. 9 Wisconsin xy   7 2         11 3  
Iowa   6 3         8 5  
Nebraska   6 3         9 4  
Minnesota   5 4         9 4  
Northwestern   5 4         7 6  
Illinois   2 7         3 9  
Purdue   1 8         3 9  
Championship: Penn State 38, Wisconsin 31
  • ^ – College Football Playoff participant
  • $ – Conference champion
  • x – Division champion/co-champions
  • y – Championship game participant
Rankings from AP Poll

The 2016 Big Ten Conference football season was the 121st season of college football play for the Big Ten Conference and is a part of the 2016 NCAA Division I FBS football season.

This was the Big Ten's third season with 14 teams. The defending league champion is Michigan State. The 2016 season will also mark a return to a nine-game conference schedule, something the league has not had since 1984.

Several Big Ten teams changed head coaches in 2016. Tracy Claeys at Minnesota had the "interim" tag removed from his title and served as the permanent head coach. D. J. Durkin was the new head coach at Maryland taking over for Randy Edsall after having spent the previous year as the defensive coordinator at Michigan, while Rutgers replaced Kyle Flood with Chris Ash, who comes to Piscataway after serving as a co-defensive coordinator at Ohio State. In March, new Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman announced he was replacing Bill Cubit as head football coach with Lovie Smith.

On October 16, 2016, Purdue announced they were parting ways with head coach Darrell Hazell. Receivers coach Gerad Parker was named interim head coach for the remainder of the 2016 season. On December 5, Purdue named Western Kentucky football coach Jeff Brohm their next head coach.

On December 1, 2016, Indiana University announced that head coach Kevin Wilson resigned his position. Indiana associate head coach Tom Allen was named Wilson's permanent successor. On January 3, 2017, the University of Minnesota announced they were relieving head coach Tracy Claeys of his duties. Three days later, Minnesota announced the hiring of Western Michigan coach P.J. Fleck to take over as head coach.


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Wikipedia

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