What if there is a 4-way tie at 8-1. This is still very much possible, simply:
- Ohio State wins out.
- Indiana loses to Ohio State but otherwise wins out.
- Oregon loses obe and only one game.
- Penn State wins out.
That creates a 4-way tie at 8-1 between the Hoosiers, Buckeyes, Ducks, and Nittany Lions. If you look through the B1G tiebreakers this would ultimately come down to "cumulative league record of league opponents". Ie, the team that played the toughest league schedule wins. So how are these teams opponents doing so far? I'm glad you asked, here it is:
- 0.558, Ohio State's league opponents are 29-23 in the league.
- 0.423, Penn State's league opponents are 22-30 in the league.
- 0.412, Oregon's league opponents are 21-30 in the league.
- 0.373, Indiana's league opponents are 19-32 in the league.
There IS a lot of football to be played so these are in flux but they might be a bit more locked in than you would at first suspect. For one thing, all four teams play Purdue so none of Purdue's results matter because they are all either wins for all four or losses for all four. Additionally:
- Ore, IU, and PSU all play tOSU.
- Ore and PSU both play IL.
- tOSU, Ore, and IU all play Michigan.
- Ore and PSU both play UWisc.
- tOSU and IU both play UNL.
- tOSU, Ore, and IU all play MSU.
- Ore, PSU, and IU all play UWash.
- tOSU and IU both play NU.
- Ore and IU both play UCLA.
- None of the four play Rutgers.
Plus, there are a LOT of games remaining between teams that these teams played. For example, next weekend MSU plays at Illinois. Both the Spartans and the Illini are Oregon opponents so that is already guaranteed to be 1-1 for Oregon's league opponents.
Ohio State's lead is humongous and realistically insurmountable. Indiana is so far behind that I don't think they can catch up. Thus, in the event of a four-way tie at 8-1 the Buckeyes will wear home jerseys in the B1GCG and their opponent will be either Penn State or Oregon.
As between the Lions and Ducks, they have the Buckeyes, Illini, Badgers, Huskies, Bruins, Terps, and Boilermakers as common opponents so the only difference is:
- Oregon plays the two Michigan Schools
- Penn State plays Minnesota and USC.
That is what it comes down to: Wolverines + Spartans vs Gophers + Trojans.