Nobody expected it. Honestly, if you look back at the betting lines from early December 2014, the Ohio State Buckeyes were four-point underdogs. Their superstar quarterback, J.T. Barrett, was sitting on the sidelines with a broken ankle he’d suffered just a week earlier against Michigan. They were down to their third-string guy—a name most casual fans barely knew at the time: Cardale Jones.
The 2014 Big 10 Championship wasn't just a football game; it was a demolition. It was the night the College Football Playoff committee had its hand forced.
Wisconsin arrived in Indianapolis with Melvin Gordon, a human highlight reel who had just rushed for 2,587 yards on the season. People thought the Badgers would steamroll a demoralized Buckeyes squad. Instead, we witnessed a 59-0 shutout that remains one of the most lopsided high-stakes games in the history of the sport. It wasn’t just that Ohio State won. It was the way they won—with a terrifying, surgical precision that made the rest of the country look twice.
Why the 2014 Big 10 Championship Still Matters Today
Think about the context. This was the very first year of the four-team College Football Playoff. Before this, we had the BCS, where computers and polls decided the top two teams. In 2014, the committee was the new kid on the block, and they were staring at a massive problem. TCU and Baylor were both sitting there with one loss, looking like locks for the final spot.
Ohio State needed a statement. A simple 21-17 win wouldn't have been enough to leapfrog the Big 12 teams. They needed a massacre.
Urban Meyer, love him or hate him, understood the optics. He knew that the 2014 Big 10 Championship was an audition. The Buckeyes didn't just play to win the conference trophy; they played to prove that a Big Ten team belonged in the national conversation at a time when the SEC was sucking all the oxygen out of the room. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, the scoreboard looked like a glitch in a video game. 59-0. Against a top-15 ranked Wisconsin team. It was absurd.
The Rise of Cardale Jones
You can't talk about this game without talking about Cardale "12 Gauge" Jones. Imagine the pressure. Your first career start is a conference championship game with national title implications. Most guys would crumble. Jones just went out there and started launching 50-yard bombs like he was playing catch in the backyard.
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He finished 12-of-17 for 257 yards and three touchdowns. He looked like a created player in Madden. Standing 6'5" and weighing 250 pounds, he was too big to bring down and had a cannon for an arm. It changed the entire geometry of the Ohio State offense. Suddenly, Wisconsin couldn't just stack the box to stop Ezekiel Elliott—though they couldn't stop him anyway. Elliott finished with 220 yards and two touchdowns on just 20 carries. He was hitting holes so fast the linebackers were basically spectators.
The Defensive Masterclass Nobody Remembers
Everyone talks about the 59 points. People forget the zero.
Wisconsin’s offense was built on one thing: running the damn ball. Melvin Gordon was a Heisman finalist. He was a lock for 100 yards every time he stepped on the turf. In the 2014 Big 10 Championship, the Buckeyes defense, led by Joey Bosa and Michael Bennett, turned him into a non-factor. Gordon had 26 carries for only 76 yards.
That's 2.9 yards per carry.
For a guy who averaged nearly eight yards a carry that season, it was a total shutdown. Ohio State’s defensive coordinator at the time was Chris Ash, and his "press quarters" scheme basically dared Wisconsin to throw the ball. Wisconsin couldn't. Joel Stave threw three interceptions. The Badgers turned the ball over four times. It was a physical beatdown that started at the line of scrimmage and never let up.
The "Eye Test" and the Playoff Committee
This game is the reason the "eye test" became a staple of college football discourse. On Sunday morning, the committee had to decide: do we take TCU, who had just beaten Iowa State 55-3, or do we take Ohio State?
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The 59-0 win in the 2014 Big 10 Championship gave the committee the "proof" they needed that Ohio State was one of the four best teams. They jumped from number five to number four, knocking TCU out. It was controversial. People in Fort Worth are still mad about it. But Ohio State went on to beat Alabama and Oregon to win the whole thing, which, in a way, vindicated the committee's decision.
If Ohio State wins that game 24-10, they probably stay at five. They don't get into the playoff. They don't win the national title. The entire trajectory of the Urban Meyer era—and the reputation of the Big Ten—changes based on those sixty minutes in Indianapolis.
Stats That Feel Fake But Are Real
Look at these numbers for a second. They don't make sense.
- Ohio State had 558 total yards.
- Wisconsin had 258.
- The Buckeyes averaged 9.3 yards per pass attempt.
- Ezekiel Elliott had an 81-yard touchdown run where he wasn't even touched.
- Wisconsin was 5-of-18 on third down.
It was the largest margin of victory in a Power Five conference championship game at that point. It was also the first time Wisconsin had been shut out since 1997.
What This Taught Us About Modern Football
The 2014 season was a turning point. It showed that depth matters more than a single star. When Barrett went down, everyone counted Ohio State out. But the infrastructure of that team was so strong that they could plug in a guy like Jones and not miss a beat.
It also proved that style points matter. Like it or not, the committee is human. They are swayed by dominance. If you're a fan of a team on the bubble today, you're looking for your "2014 Ohio State moment." You're looking for that one game where everything clicks so perfectly that the experts have no choice but to put you in.
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The 2014 Big 10 Championship also signaled the end of the "three yards and a cloud of dust" era for the conference. Ohio State was playing a fast, spread-out game that looked more like the Big 12 or the Pac-12, but with Big Ten size and strength. It forced the rest of the league to evolve. You couldn't just be "Wisconsin big" anymore; you had to be "Ohio State fast."
Misconceptions About the Game
One thing people get wrong is thinking Wisconsin was a "fake" team that year. They weren't. They finished the season 11-3. They went on to beat Auburn in the Outback Bowl. They were a very good football team that simply ran into a buzzsaw.
Another misconception is that Cardale Jones did it all himself. While he was great, the offensive line—the "Slobs" as they called themselves—played the best game of their lives. Taylor Decker, Pat Elflein, and Billy Price were opening lanes you could drive a truck through. Jones had all day to throw. When a quarterback has that much time and a running back has those kinds of lanes, the game becomes easy.
How to Appreciate This History
If you're a college football junkie, you should go back and watch the condensed replay of this game. Pay attention to the body language. By the middle of the second quarter, you can see the Wisconsin players realizing that nothing they do is going to work.
It’s rare to see a meeting of two elite teams turn into a varsity-versus-JV scrimmage. That’s what happened in the 2014 Big 10 Championship. It remains the gold standard for "rising to the occasion."
Actionable Takeaways for Fans and Students of the Game
- Study the "Press Quarters" Defense: If you want to understand how Ohio State neutralized Melvin Gordon, look into the specific defensive alignment Chris Ash used. It’s a masterclass in run support from the safety position.
- Evaluate the "Third-String" Narrative: Use this game as a case study for why recruiting depth is more important than having a single "star" starter. Ohio State's "next man up" philosophy was born here.
- Contextualize the Playoff Era: When discussing the current 12-team playoff format, remember that games like this are why the committee was created—to weigh "strength of schedule" and "game control" against raw win-loss records.
- Watch the Linemen: Don't just follow the ball. Watch the Ohio State offensive line vs. the Wisconsin front seven. It’s a clinic on zone blocking and moving to the second level.
The game wasn't just a win; it was a shift in the tectonic plates of college football. It gave the Big Ten its first modern national champion and set the stage for the powerhouse program Ohio State would continue to be for the next decade.
Whether you're a Buckeyes fan, a Badgers fan, or just someone who loves the chaos of the sport, that December night in 2014 is a mandatory chapter in your football education. It was the night the underdog became the predator. It was 59-0, and honestly, it felt like it could have been worse.