1996 Big Ten Conference football season

1996 Big Ten Conference football season
League	NCAA Division I-A
Sport	football
Teams	11
Co-champions	Ohio State, Northwestern
Football seasons

1996 Big Ten Conference football standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 2 Ohio State +		7	–	1					11	–	1
No. 15 Northwestern +		7	–	1					9	–	3
No. 7 Penn State		6	–	2					11	–	2
No. 18 Iowa		6	–	2					9	–	3
No. 20 Michigan		5	–	3					8	–	4
Michigan State		5	–	3					6	–	6
Wisconsin		3	–	5					8	–	5
Purdue		2	–	6					3	–	8
Minnesota		1	–	7					4	–	7
Indiana		1	–	7					3	–	8
Illinois		1	–	7					2	–	9
+ – Conference co-champions Rankings from AP Poll

The 1996 Big Ten Conference football season was the 101st season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Ten Conference and was a part of the 1996 NCAA Division I-A football season.

Regular season

With 7-1 conference marks, Ohio State and Northwestern shared the Big Ten title in 1996. ^[1] Since Northwestern had just represented the league in the Rose Bowl the year before, Ohio State was granted the opportunity to face Arizona State in the 1997 Rose Bowl, their first since the 1984 team. Ohio State would finish the season ranked No. 2 in the AP Poll and Northwestern at No. 15.

No. 7 Penn State and No. 18 Iowa tied for third with 6-2 conference records. No. 20 Michigan and Michigan State tied for fifth place at 5-3.

Wisconsin came in seventh at 3-5 (8-5 overall), followed by eighth-place Purdue at 2-6 (3-8 overall).

Minnesota, Indiana, and Illinois all went 1-7 in conference play, going 4-7, 3-8, and 2-9 overall, respectively.

Bowl games

Main article: 1996–97 NCAA football bowl games

Seven Big Ten teams played in bowl games, going 4-3 overall. The conference did not participate in the Bowl Alliance:

Rose Bowl:	No. 4 Ohio State	20	No. 2 Arizona St.	17	1/1/97 [2]
Fiesta Bowl:	No. 7 Penn State	38	No. 20 Texas	15	1/1/97 [3]
Florida Citrus Bowl:	No. 9 Tennessee	48	No. 11 Northwestern	28	1/1/97 [4]
Outback Bowl:	No. 16 Alabama	17	No. 15 Michigan	14	1/1/97 [5]
Sun Bowl:	Stanford	38	Michigan State	0	12/31/96 [6]
Alamo Bowl:	No. 21 Iowa	27	Texas Tech	0	12/29/96 [7]
Copper Bowl:	Wisconsin	38	Utah	10	12/27/96 [8]

• *Note: shown rankings were prior to the bowl game matchups.

References

1. "2025 BIG TEN FOOTBALL MEDIA GUIDE" (PDF). Big Ten Conference. pp. 91–99. Retrieved November 4, 2025.
2. 2008 Rose Bowl Program Archived March 6, 2008, at the Wayback Machine , 2008 Rose Bowl. Accessed January 26, 2008.
3. "Fiesta Bowl Odds and Betting History".
4. "Bowl Summaries". Montgomery Advertiser . Montgomery, Alabama. January 2, 1997. p. 2D. Retrieved January 1, 2019– via newspapers.com.
5. Hurt, Cecil (January 2, 1997). "Tide's sendoff for Stallings: emotional win over Michigan". The Tuscaloosa News. p. C1. Retrieved February 1, 2011.
6. "1996-97 Season: Per Team Payouts: | Infoplease".
7. "Auto PDF p hotos s chools text sports m footbl auto PDF 05mediaguide bowlhistory".
8. "Wisconsin vs. Utah". usatoday.com. December 28, 1996.