Ohio State vs. Indiana, Big Ten Championship prediction by ESPN football computer

It’s not often you see the No. 1 and No. 2 team on the same field in college football, but Ohio State and Indiana will be such an occasion as the last two undefeated teams square off for the Big Ten championship on Saturday.

Both are 12-0. Each pretty much unchallenged. Dynamic offenses, tough defenses.

The winner is a sure thing for the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff, while the loser will have to settle for a lower ranking in the postseason field.

Looking ahead to this week’s matchup, let’s check out the latest college football predictions from the Football Power Index computer prediction model.

The model simulates every NCAA college football game 20,000 times and uses key analytics from both teams and picks winners based on a projected scoring margin per game.

Ohio State vs. Indiana prediction

Get ready, Buckeyes. The model smells an upset.

That's right, the speculation machine is expecting big things from the Hoosiers in what could be the defining upset of the college football season.

After simulating the game 20,000 times, the model revealed that Indiana came out the prospective winner of the Big Ten title, but in what should be a close game.

Indiana came out on top in the slight majority 50.6 percent of the computer simulations of the game.

That leaves Ohio State as the presumptive winner in the remaining 49.4 percent of sims.

How does that translate into an expected margin of victory in the game? This one will come down to the very slimmest of margins.

Indiana is projected to be just 0.1 points better than Ohio State on the same field, according to the model's 20,000 forecasts of the game. In essence, a toss-up.

College Football Power Index

Football Power Index (FPI) college football rankings and computer prediction model are a measure of team strength that predicts a team’s future performance.

Rankings and scores predictions are based on 20,000 simulations of a team’s season and games, using a combination of key analytics, including scores to date, quality of opponents, team talent, recruiting, and a team’s schedule.

Teams are ranked not in order of talent like in other rankings, but by a projected point margin per game against an average team on a neutral field.

How good is the prediction model?

How accurate was the College Football Power Index computer prediction model last Saturday?

Projecting the games a week ago, the Power Index models correctly predicted 74.6 percent of all games and hit 50 percent against the spread.

Predicting a total of 799 college football games a year ago, the Power Index computers were correct for 70.964 percent of their final picks, ranking eighth nationally out of 55 other football models.

Over the last decade, the Football Power Index has proven correct on 75 percent of FBS college football game predictions, including in 73 percent of matchups when it favored a team with at least 70 percent likelihood to win.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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