Scheduled to begin at the conclusion of the 2011 college football season, the Big Ten Football Championship Game will determine the champion of the Big Ten Conference by pitting the top teams in each of the divisions against one another. The winner of the Big Ten Football Championship Game will automatically earn a bid to play in the Rose Bowl, unless the winner is ranked within the top two of the BCS standings, then the winner may receive an invitation to the BCS Championship Game.http://www.bigten.org/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/090110aaa.html

For the inaugural Big Ten Championship Game, teams will meet on December 3, 2011, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, home of the Indianapolis Colts. The game, which airs in prime time, will air on FOX until at least 2016.http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/19946/fox-to-televise-first-six-bt-title-games According to Big Ten Conference Commissioner Jim Delany, the location of the annual title game could rotate each year.http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-11-18/sports/ct-spt-1119-big-ten-football--20101118_1_indianapolis-lucas-oil-stadium-bcs-title-big-ten

Between 1896 and 1990, the Big Ten Conference grew from the original seven members to 10 teams from across the Midwestern United States. Penn State University joined in 1990, but the conference, with 11 teams, still lacked the 12 members required by the NCAA to hold a championship game. In June 2010, the University of Nebraska was approved to move from the Big 12 Conference to the Big Ten, creating the 12 teams needed.http://www.bigten.org/genrel/061110aag.html Shortly after Nebraska was approved, with Big Ten play beginning in the 2011-12 season, details of the new conference alignment and a championship game began to emerge.http://www.bigten.org/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/090110aaa.html

In September 2010, the Big Ten Conference announced how the 12 member teams would be placed into divisions, but did not announce official division names. One conference would contain Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin while the other division would include Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska and Northwestern.http://www.bigten.org/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/090110aaa.html

Each college is scheduled to play five games against the other teams within its division each season plus three games against teams from the other Big Ten division, with the team in each division with the best record in those contests earning a spot in the Big Ten Football Championship Game.http://www.bigten.org/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/090110aaa.html In order to allow teams to continue rivalry games, such as the annual Ohio State-Michigan game, teams may nine conference games each season rather than the standard eight.http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5431976