1993 Big Ten Conference football season

1993 Big Ten Conference football season
League	NCAA Division I-A
Sport	football
Teams	11
Co-champions	Wisconsin, Ohio State
Football seasons

1993 Big Ten Conference football standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 6 Wisconsin +	6	–	1	–	1			10	–	1	–	1
No. 11 Ohio State +	6	–	1	–	1			10	–	1	–	1
No. 8 Penn State	6	–	2	–	0			10	–	2	–	0
Indiana	5	–	3	–	0			8	–	4	–	0
No. 21 Michigan	5	–	3	–	0			8	–	4	–	0
Illinois	5	–	3	–	0			5	–	6	–	0
Michigan State	4	–	4	–	0			6	–	6	–	0
Iowa	3	–	5	–	0			6	–	6	–	0
Minnesota	3	–	5	–	0			4	–	7	–	0
Northwestern	0	–	8	–	0			2	–	9	–	0
Purdue	0	–	8	–	0			1	–	10	–	0
+ – Conference co-champions Rankings from AP Poll

The 1993 Big Ten Conference football season was the 98th season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Ten Conference and was a part of the 1993 NCAA Division I-A football season.

After being unanimously voted into the conference on June 4, 1990, ^[1] Penn State began its first official football season as a member of the Big Ten for this season. ^[2]

Regular season

Wisconsin and Ohio State tied for the conference championship with 6-1-1 records, ^[3] which included a 14-14 tie between the squads on November 6 in Madison. Wisconsin won the Rose Bowl invitation tiebreaker due to Big Ten rules which resolved first-place ties by eliminating the most recent invitee: Wisconsin had last been to the Rose Bowl in 1963, while Ohio State was in the 1985 Rose Bowl. ^[4]

Penn State's first Big Ten season resulted in a third place finish at 6-2, 10-2 overall. They opened and closed their conference season with brand new trophy games against Minnesota and Michigan State.

At 5-3 in conference play, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois tied for fourth place. Michigan State finished at 4-4, which was good for seventh.

Iowa and Minnesota tied for eighth with 3-5 conference records. Northwestern and Purdue both went winless with 0-8 records, which makes 1993 the most recent season that two Big Ten schools didn't win a conference game. ^[3]

Bowl games

Main article: 1993–94 NCAA football bowl games

Seven Big Ten teams played in bowl games, going 4-3 overall:

• Rose Bowl: No. 9 Wisconsin 21, No. 14 UCLA 16
• Florida Citrus Bowl: No. 13 Penn State 31, No. 6 Tennessee 13
• Hall of Fame Bowl: No. 23 Michigan 42, NC State 7
• Alamo Bowl: California 37, Iowa 3
• Independence Bowl: No. 22 Virginia Tech 45, No. 21 Indiana 20
• Holiday Bowl: No. 11 Ohio State 28, BYU 21
• Liberty Bowl: No. 25 Louisville 18, Michigan State 7

References

1. "Penn State officially in Big Ten". Toledo Blade. June 5, 1990. Retrieved November 5, 2025.
2. Tony Mancuso (June 4, 2015). "Commemorating 25 years of Penn State and the Big Ten". psu.edu. Retrieved November 4, 2025.
3. "2025 BIG TEN FOOTBALL MEDIA GUIDE" (PDF). Big Ten Conference. pp. 91–99. Retrieved November 4, 2025.
4. DAVID E. SANGER - COLLEGE FOOTBALL; Wisconsin Is on Top a World Away. New York Times December 6, 1993