FanHouse Big 10

COLUMBUS, Ohio(AP) -- The oldest of the Buckeyes sent Ohio State back to the Granddaddy of all bowls.

Devin Barclay, a 26-year-old former pro soccer player, kicked a 39-yard field goal in overtime to give No. 10 Ohio State a 27-24 victory Saturday over No. 15 Iowa and send the Buckeyes to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 13 years.

"None of our kids have gone to the Rose Bowl. I haven't been there in 25 years (since) I was an assistant coach in the 1985 Rose Bowl,'' coach Jim Tressel said. "There's nothing like it. It's a great feeling.''

The Buckeyes (9-2, 6-1) clinched at least a share of their fifth consecutive Big Ten title and the conference's automatic BCS bid.

"It means everything to us,'' linebacker Austin Spitler said. "Senior day, we're going to remember this for the rest of our lives. This is a special moment.''

One little loss to Northwestern can change everything. Iowa looked like the team to beat in the Big Ten title race, but now that it has fallen to the Wildcats and Ohio State has beaten Penn State, all the momentum has moved back to Columbus. Technically, both the Hawkeyes and Buckeyes control their own destiny. Whichever team wins Saturday's game is the presumptive conference champion.

Now go try to figure the odds that Iowa can win in the Horseshoe with a redshirt freshman quarterback making his first career start with no run support to speak of.

For a man who said goodbye to his 2009 team as reluctantly as a kid giving back a puppy, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo took the fastest possible route to this year's season kick-off.

He arrived in an Indy Car.

With the Final Four in Indianapolis, you don't exactly need your college lit professor to explain the symbolism of Izzo's Midnight Madness ride, (though the prof might help in search of the metaphor to describe what a 220-pound man wedged in a car the sized of a futon looks like). Then again, you might just consider it foreshadowing of a Big Ten race that'll be just as fierce as anything waged on the brickyard.

Please be sure to buckle up.

"I honestly see nine or 10 ... teams that could realistically win the league," Izzo said at the Big Ten media day. "Top to bottom, the league is the best it's been in a long time."

With three games left in the conference season, the Big Ten championship is seemingly up for grabs. I say "seemingly" because thus far Iowa has proved to be more resilient than Kevlar, cast iron, and Gary Busey. At this point it almost seems like the Hawkeyes could not even take the field until late in the fourth quarter and still win.

They've looked quite mortal at times, though, so it's worth looking at who still has a shot at the trip to Pasadena. There's even one team you'd think wouldn't be in it based on who they've lost to.

Every Thursday, Pickin' on the Big Ten runs down the weekend's games from inside a chicken coop, at least as far as you know.

Cue the inevitable anti-Iowa backlash. A team that barely got by Arkansas State and Northern Iowa is somehow No. 1 in the nation according to the computer polls the BCS uses. Don't like it? Line forms to the left. Kirk Ferentz even agrees with you.

Shouldn't the computers' top ranked team have at least some sort of offense? Yes, of course. But whose fault is that No. 1 ranking?

Yours, you loudmouth.

While most of the world is still trying to figure out how the Iowa Hawkeyes stole the cheese out of the mousetrap -- again -- the conference title race is beginning to take a little more shape. Since neither Iowa nor Ohio State lost this past weekend, there's no shakeup at the top. Both teams remain equally in control of their respective destinies.

But what about the rest of the league? Is anybody new out of the hunt this week? Who's still alive but barely breathing? And where do things go from here in this crazy conference?

The Iowa Hawkeyes are the Big Ten's only undefeated team, both in conference play and overall. Right behind the No. 7 Hawkeyes stand a 5-2 team (Ohio State), a 4-3 team (Michigan State), and a 6-1 team Iowa has already beaten (Penn State).

The Hawks look to be in complete control of the conference race, with those 6-1 Nittany Lions nipping at their heels. But Iowa the only Big Ten team in control of its BCS destiny? No, no they are not. You might be surprised how little help some of the other teams need, too.

Every Thursday, Pickin' on the Big Ten gives you the bottom line on the upcoming weekend's games.

Every team now has six games on the books. Well, Illinois doesn't, which is good news/bad news. Illinois fans have only had to watch five games so far; that's good news. They have seven games left to watch, which is not such good news.

This would be a perfect time for mid-term report cards, but letter grades are so one-dimensional, don't you think? There are more meaningful comparisons to be made. Make the jump and see every Big Ten team compared to ... well, just go and look.

Michigan State has its first two-game winning streak against Michigan for the first time since 1967, but the Spartans did not make it easy on themselves. Blowing a 20-6 lead with less than five minutes left in the game and needing overtime to get the win.

Michigan State's defense finally looked like a legitimate defense for most of the game. They completely held Tate Forcier and the Michigan offense in check for most of the game. While the Michigan State offense struggled at times in the first half, they began to wear down the Wolverine defense with a balanced attack along with some big miscues by Michigan. Especially a fourth-and-inches at the Michigan 16, where a fake punt failed badly.

In 2003, kicker Rhys Lloyd hit a last-second field goal to lift Minnesota over Wisconsin. As soon as the ball went through the uprights, Lloyd high-tailed it to the Wisconsin sideline. He was looking to get his hands on Paul Bunyan's Axe, the trophy that goes to the winner of the Wisconsin-Minnesota game each year. Lloyd was the first one there, with his teammates closely behind.

The next year, Wisconsin beat Minnesota to reclaim the trophy. The Gophers haven't touched it since.