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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/redwave2505 on 2023-10-05 20:31:32.

The Big Ten has now done away with the old divisions, due to the new geography and size of the conference, and the fact that the divisions were wildly unbalanced in quality. But by doing away with the smaller round-robins which feed into the Conference Championship Game, the Big Ten can end up with more than 2 teams going undefeated. For instance, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa all do not play each other in 2024, so if they were to go through their conference schedules undefeated, one of them will have to be excluded from the Big Ten Championship Game. This made me interested in what combinations of teams don’t play each other in 2024, and thus could end up as an undefeated team with no way to play for the Conference Championship. But in the course of deriving these possibilities, I found out that not only is there a way for 3 teams to all go undefeated in conference play in 2024, but 4 teams and even 5 teams (?!) could all go undefeated at the same time. This means that there could potentially be 3 different undefeated teams left out of the Big Ten Championship Game! Listed below are all the combinations I have found of teams who do not play each other and could all go undefeated at the same time.

3-team undefeated combinations:

  • Illinois, Indiana, Iowa
  • Illinois, Indiana, USC
  • Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin
  • Illinois, Iowa, USC
  • Illinois, Maryland, Ohio State
  • Illinois, Maryland, UCLA
  • Illinois, Maryland, Washington
  • Illinois, Maryland, Wisconsin
  • Illinois, Ohio State, UCLA
  • Illinois, Ohio State, USC
  • Illinois, Ohio State, Washington
  • Illinois, Ohio State, Wisconsin
  • Illinois, UCLA, Wisconsin
  • Illinois, Washington, Wisconsin
  • Indiana, Iowa, Oregon
  • Indiana, Iowa, Penn State
  • Indiana, Iowa, Rutgers
  • Indiana, Iowa, USC
  • Indiana, Minnesota, Oregon
  • Indiana, Oregon, Penn State
  • Indiana, Oregon, Rutgers
  • Indiana, Oregon, USC
  • Indiana, Penn State, Rutgers
  • Iowa, Michigan, Penn State
  • Iowa, Michigan, Purdue
  • Iowa, Michigan, Rutgers
  • Iowa, Oregon, Penn State
  • Iowa, Oregon, Rutgers
  • Iowa, Oregon, USC
  • Iowa, Penn State, Rutgers
  • Iowa, Purdue, Rutgers
  • Iowa, Purdue, USC
  • Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska
  • Maryland, Michigan, Purdue
  • Maryland, Michigan, UCLA
  • Maryland, Michigan, Wisconsin
  • Maryland, Nebraska, Washington
  • Maryland, Ohio State, UCLA
  • Maryland, Ohio State, Washington
  • Maryland, Ohio State, Wisconsin
  • Maryland, Purdue, UCLA
  • Maryland, Purdue, Washington
  • Maryland, UCLA, Wisconsin
  • Maryland, Washington, Wisconsin
  • Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State
  • Michigan, Penn State, Rutgers
  • Michigan, Purdue, Rutgers
  • Michigan, Purdue, UCLA
  • Michigan, UCLA, Wisconsin
  • Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska
  • Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern
  • Michigan State, Minnesota, Washington
  • Michigan State, Nebraska, Northwestern
  • Michigan State, Nebraska, Penn State
  • Michigan State, Nebraska, Washington
  • Michigan State, Northwestern, Penn State
  • Michigan State, Northwestern, UCLA
  • Michigan State, Northwestern, USC
  • Michigan State, UCLA, Wisconsin
  • Michigan State, Washington, Wisconsin
  • Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern
  • Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon
  • Minnesota, Nebraska, Washington
  • Minnesota, Northwestern, Oregon
  • Minnesota, Ohio State, Washington
  • Minnesota, Purdue, Washington
  • Nebraska, Northwestern, Oregon
  • Nebraska, Northwestern, Penn State
  • Nebraska, Oregon, Penn State
  • Northwestern, Oregon, Penn State
  • Northwestern, Oregon, Rutgers
  • Northwestern, Oregon, USC
  • Northwestern, Penn State, Rutgers
  • Ohio State, UCLA, Wisconsin
  • Ohio State, Washington, Wisconsin
  • Oregon, Penn State, Rutgers

4-team undefeated combinations:

  • Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, USC
  • Illinois, Maryland, Ohio State, UCLA
  • Illinois, Maryland, Ohio State, Washington
  • Illinois, Maryland, Ohio State, Wisconsin
  • Illinois, Maryland, UCLA, Wisconsin
  • Illinois, Maryland, Washington, Wisconsin
  • Illinois, Ohio State, UCLA, Wisconsin
  • Illinois, Ohio State, Washington, Wisconsin
  • Indiana, Iowa, Oregon, Penn State
  • Indiana, Iowa, Oregon, Rutgers
  • Indiana, Iowa, Oregon, USC
  • Indiana, Iowa, Penn State, Rutgers
  • Indiana, Oregon, Penn State, Rutgers
  • Iowa, Michigan, Penn State, Rutgers
  • Iowa, Michigan, Purdue, Rutgers
  • Iowa, Oregon, Penn State, Rutgers
  • Maryland, Michigan, Purdue, UCLA
  • Maryland, Michigan, UCLA, Wisconsin
  • Maryland, Ohio State, UCLA, Wisconsin
  • Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern
  • Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Washington
  • Michigan State, Nebraska, Northwestern, Penn State
  • Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Oregon
  • Nebraska, Northwestern, Oregon, Penn State
  • Northwestern, Oregon, Penn State, Rutgers

5-team undefeated combinations:

  • Illinois, Maryland, Ohio State, UCLA, Wisconsin
  • Indiana, Iowa, Oregon, Penn State, Rutgers

Therefore, I believe it is possible for all 5 of Illinois, Maryland, Ohio State, UCLA, and Wisconsin to go 12-0 at the same time in 2024, with only 2 of them advancing to the Big Ten Championship. Likewise, all 5 of Indiana, Iowa, Oregon, Penn State, and Rutgers could go 12-0 at the same time. Please let me know if you see any mistakes, it is very possible I have made some mistake. But if this is true, we could be seeing a lot of crazy scenarios in conference tiebreakers in the years to come, as well as some very interesting dilemmas for the CFP selection committee to ponder.

Edit: Illinois, Maryland, Ohio State, Washington, Wisconsin also works. That probably means I missed some 3 and 4 team combinations too but I’ll have to figure those out later.

Edit 2: The 4-team combination I missed was Maryland, Ohio State, Washington, Wisconsin