The 2014 Big Ten Conference football season was the 119th season of college football play for the Big Ten Conference and was a part of the 2014 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The conference began its season on Thursday, August 28, as Minnesota and Rutgers opened their seasons. The remainder of the teams in the conference began their season on August 30.

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2014 Big Ten Conference football season
League	NCAA Division I FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision)
Sport	Football
Duration	August 28, 2014 through January 2015
Number of teams	14
TV partner(s)	ABC, ESPN2, ESPN Inc., Big Ten Network, FOX (championship game)
2015 NFL Draft
Top draft pick	Brandon Scherff (Iowa)
Picked by	Washington Redskins, 5th overall
Regular season
Season MVP	Melvin Gordon
Top scorer	Melvin Gordon (192 points)
East Division champions	Ohio State
West Division champions	Wisconsin
Championship Game
Champions	Ohio State
Runners-up	Wisconsin
Finals MVP	Cardale Jones (QB), Ohio State
Football seasons
← 2013 2015 →

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This was the Big Ten's first season with 14 teams as Maryland and Rutgers joined the conference. It was also the first season with the two seven-team divisions; when Maryland and Rutgers joined, the conference reorganized its divisions on a pure geographic basis. The six schools in the Central Time Zone were joined by Purdue in the new West Division, with the other schools making up the East Division. Under the new setup, the only protected cross-division rivalry game will be Indiana–Purdue.^[1]

Ohio State routed Wisconsin, 59–0, to win 2014 Big Ten Football Championship Game in Indianapolis. The Buckeyes then advanced to the first ever College Football Playoff where they defeated Alabama in the Sugar Bowl semifinal game and then defeated Oregon in the 2015 College Football Playoff National Championship to claim their eighth national championship in school history.

For the first time in several years, the Big Ten finished the season with two consensus top-five teams. In addition to Ohio State's consensus national title, Michigan State finished the season as the consensus #5 team in the nation.

(Attendance in parentheses)^[2]

April 5

• Michigan (15,000)

April 11

• Maryland (8,319)

April 12

• Illinois (5,105)
• Indiana (9,231)
• Minnesota (5,000)
• Nebraska (61,772)
• Northwestern (N/A)
• Ohio State (61,058)
• Penn State (72,000)
• Purdue (7,175)
• Wisconsin (8,204)

April 26

• Iowa (20,400)
• Michigan State (35,000)
• Rutgers (11,500)

All times Eastern time.

† denotes Homecoming game

Big Ten bowl games for the 2014 season are:

Rankings are from AP Poll. All times Eastern Time Zone.

2014 records against FBS conferences:

Through games of January 12, 2015

2014 Big Ten Player of the Year awards^[28]

Coaches All-Conference Selections^[28]

Unanimous selections in ALL CAPS

Honorable Mention: Illinois: V’Angelo Bentley, Mikey Dudek, Teddy Karras, Mason Monheim, Jihad Ward; Indiana: Antonio Allen, Dan Feeney, Collin Rahrig, Bobby Richardson, Shane Wynn; Iowa: Andrew Donnal, Jordan Lomax, John Lowdermilk, Drew Ott, Tevaun Smith; Maryland: Cole Farrand, Andre Monroe; Michigan: Brennan Beyer, Will Hagerup, Raymon Taylor; Michigan State: Ed Davis, Jeremy Langford, Josiah Price, Marcus Rush, Mike Sadler; Minnesota: Cameron Botticelli, Josh Campion, Theiren Cockran, Tommy Olson; Nebraska: Zaire Anderson, Jake Cotton, Sam Foltz, Nate Gerry, Alex Lewis, Josh Mitchell; Northwestern: Chi Chi Ariguzo, Justin Jackson, Dean Lowry, Nick Van Hoose, Brandon Vitabile, Dan Vitale; Ohio State: Darryl Baldwin, Cameron Johnston, Joshua Perry, Devin Smith, Evan Spencer; Penn State: Adrian Amos, Deion Barnes, DaeSean Hamilton, Jesse James, Jordan Lucas; Purdue: Landon Feichter, Paul Griggs; Rutgers: Leonte Carroo, Kaleb Johnson; Wisconsin: Vince Biegel, Rafael Gaglianone, Dallas Lewallen, Tyler Marz, Joe Schobert, Marcus Trotter, Dan Voltz.

Unanimous selections in ALL CAPS

Media All-Conference Selections^[28]

Honorable Mention: Illinois: Taylor Barton, V’Angelo Bentley, Ted Karras, Mason Monheim; Indiana: Antonio Allen, Dan Feeney, Collin Rahrig, Bobby Richardson, Jason Spriggs, Shane Wynn; Iowa: Quinton Alston, Austin Blythe, Jake Duzey, John Lowdermilk, Desmond King, Louis Trinca-Pasat; Maryland: Sean Davis, Stefon Diggs, Cole Farrand, Darius Kilgo, Yannick Ngakoue; Michigan: Brennan Beyer, Blake Countess, Devin Funchess, Raymon Taylor; Michigan State: Ed Davis, Taiwan Jones, Jeremy Langford, Josiah Price, Marcus Rush, Mike Sadler; Minnesota: Cameron Botticelli, Josh Campion, Theiren Cockran, Eric Murray, Tommy Olson; Nebraska: Zaire Anderson, Kenny Bell, Maliek Collins, Corey Cooper, Jake Cotton, Alex Lewis, Josh Mitchell; Northwestern: Chi Chi Ariguzo, Ibraheim Campbell, Cameron Johnston, Brandon Vitabile, Dan Vitale; Ohio State: Darryl Baldwin, Vonn Bell, Ezekiel Elliott, Cameron Johnston, Devin Smith, Michael Thomas, Adolphus Washington; Penn State: Adrian Amos, Deion Barnes, Jesse James, Austin Johnson, Jordan Lucas, Angelo Mangiro, Trevor Williams; Purdue: Landon Feichter, Robert Kugler, Frankie Williams; Rutgers: Darius Hamilton, Kaleb Johnson, Kemoko Turay; Wisconsin: Sam Arneson, Rafael Gaglianone, Darius Hillary, Dallas Lewallen, Tyler Marz, Joe Schobert, Marcus Trotter

There are many outlets that award All-America honors in football. The NCAA uses five official selectors to also determine Consensus and Unanimous All-America honors. The five teams used by the NCAA to compile the consensus team are from the Associated Press, the AFCA, the FWAA, The Sporting News and the Walter Camp Football Foundation. A point system is used to calculate the consensus honors. The point system consists of three points for first team, two points for second team and three points for third team. No honorable mention or fourth team or lower are used in the computation.

The teams are compiled by position and the player accumulating the most points at each position is named a Consensus All-American. If there is a tie at a position in football for first team then the players who are tied shall be named to the team. A player named first-team by all five of the NCAA-recognized selectors is recognized as a Unanimous All-American.^[29]

2014 First Team All-Americans

Joey Bosa, Tevin Coleman, Melvin Gordon and Brandon Scherff were declared Unanimous All-Americans for 2014 having been named to the First Teams by all five selectors recognized by the NCAA (Associated Press, American Football Coaches Association, Football Writers Association of America, Walter Camp, Sporting News)

Six Big Ten student-athletes were named to the Capital One Academic All-America first or second teams in football as announced by CoSIDA. The Big Ten has now led all Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) conferences in Academic All-Americans for 10 straight seasons, with 78 honorees over that time span.

First Team: Mark Murphy, Indiana; Mike Sadler, Michigan State; Maxx Williams, Minnesota; Davie Milewski, Rutgers. Second Team: Mark Weisman, Iowa; Jacoby Boren, Ohio State.^[30]

To be eligible for the award, a player must be in at least his second year of athletic eligibility, be a first-team or key performer and carry a cumulative 3.30 grade point average (GPA).

• Tom Herman, Ohio State – Frank Broyles Award (top assistant coach)
• Melvin Gordon, Wisconsin – Doak Walker Award (top running back)
• Brad Craddock, Maryland – Lou Groza Award (top placekicker)
• Brandon Scherff, Iowa – Outland Trophy (top interior lineman)

35 Big Ten athletes were selected in the 2015 NFL Draft.^[31]

In the explanations below, (PD) indicates trades completed prior to the start of the draft (i.e. Pre-Draft), while (D) denotes trades that took place during the 2015 draft.

Round one

Round two

Round four

Round five

NFL Draft Selections by NCAA Conference
SEC – 54
ACC – 47
Pac-12 – 39
Big Ten – 35
Big 12 – 25
American – 11
Mountain West – 10
C-USA – 6
Sun Belt – 3
Independents – 2
MAC – 0
Non-FBS Conferences – 24