The Big Ten Football Championship Game is a college football game that is held by the Big Ten Conference each year to determine the conference's season champion. The inaugural game was played on December 3, 2011. The games during the next two seasons were held on December 1, 2012, and December 7, 2013. The championship game will pit the division champions from the conference's West and East divisions in a game held after the regular season has been completed.
The winner of this game will earn the Big Ten's automatic berth in the Rose Bowl Game, unless the team is selected to play in the four-team College Football Playoff. If this is the case, they will go to one of the bowls hosting the national semifinals. The winner of this game will also receive the Stagg Championship Trophy (formerly the Stagg-Paterno Championship Trophy, however Paterno's name was removed following the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State), and the most valuable player of this game will receive the Grange-Griffin Championship Game Most Valuable Player Trophy.
