I went with 1993 Wisconsin because I remember it and it was a HUMONGOUS surprise to me. Some context:
I was a freshman at Ohio State that fall. The Buckeyes were widely expected to compete for the title which was more unusual then than it has been of late. At that point the Buckeyes hadn't won a title since 1986 and that one had been shared with the Wolverines and Michigan won the tie based on the H2H result so the Buckeyes hadn't been to the Rose Bowl since their outright League Title in the 1984 season.
Additionally, 1992 for the Buckeyes was one of those seasons where the team seemed to improve pretty dramatically over the course of the year. They took a couple early-season losses to mediocre teams then rattled off five straight wins. Then it *SEEMED* at the time that Cooper had FINALLY gotten the Michigan monkey off of his back with a 13-13 tie in the final regular season game. The Buckeyes did lose their bowl but it was a close loss to a very good Georgia team so Ohio State seemed to be hitting their stride and was expected to compete for the title.
In the preseason polls the league had:
- #3 Michigan
- #16 Penn State (their first year in the league)
- #17 Ohio State
The internet was still in its infancy so I remember looking at the Ohio State schedule the old-school way, on a paper preseason magazine and thinking that the Big11Ten Championship would be determined either by:
- Penn State at Michigan on October 16, or
- Penn State at Ohio State on October 30, or
- Ohio State at Michigan on November 27
There was no consideration whatsoever of the November 6 Wisconsin at Ohio State game.
Despite what
@847badgerfan says, there were no apparent reasons to suspect that Wisconsin would compete for, let alone win the league title:
- The Badgers hadn't finished above .500 since 1984.
- The Badgers hadn't won a league title in three decades (1962).
- The Badgers had only won three league titles in the previous 80 years (From 1913-1992 they won in 1952, 1959, and 1962).
- The Badgers 5-6 season in 1992 didn't look appreciably better than their 5-6 season in 1991.
- The Badgers didn't appear to improve substantially over the course of the 1992 season. They actually started out well in 1992 going 3-1 to start the year including a win over Ohio State (not a great Ohio State team but .500+) then finished 2-5 with the only wins being at home over sub .500 teams.
Even after the 1993 season got rolling it took a long time before Wisconsin looked like a threat to win the league. They did start 6-0 but they only climbed to #15 in part because their three OOC games were against mediocre and bad teams and their first three league games were similarly against mediocre and bad teams. Then they inexplicably lost to a bad Minnesota team on October 23 and dropped to #21. At that point it looked like it was just an above average season for the Badgers.
Even the following week when Wisconsin beat the Wolverines for the first time since 1981 and only the second time since 1962 it still didn't look like Wisconsin was a serious contender because they had that loss to Minnesota and because Michigan already had three losses BEFORE the loss to Wisconsin (ND, MSU, IL) so beating them wasn't THAT impressive.
Instead, at the time it appeared that the big game on October 30 was Ohio State's home win over Penn State. It was only the following week when Wisconsin tied Ohio State that it became clear that they were a contender but even then it still didn't look like they had much of a chance. Ohio State had been #3 heading into their showdown with Penn State and solidified that with their win. The only teams ahead of them in the polls were FSU and ND who were scheduled to meet later that year.
Wisconsin's loss to Minnesota had already occurred so at that point it was just a waiting game for them, hoping that Ohio State would stumble. If you had offered a rational fan a choice at that point to bet which would happen first, a Wisconsin loss or an Ohio State loss, any rational fan would have taken Wisconsin losing. That Minnesota loss was BAD.
