The 2010 Big Ten Conference football season was the 115th season for the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...

. The conference started its season on Thursday, September 2, as conference member

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

traveled to

Murfreesboro, Tennessee Murfreesboro is a city in Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Its population was 165,430 according to the 2023 census estimate, up from 108,755 residents certified in 2010 United States census, 2010. Murfreesboro i ...

to face

Middle Tennessee Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the state's capital an ...

, and

Ohio State The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one of the largest universities by enrollme ...

hosted the Thundering Herd of

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia *Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria ** Marshall railway station Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Is ...

. The conference's other 9 teams began their respective 2010 season of

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division I FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) competition on Saturday, September 4. It was also the final season for the conference before the

Nebraska Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference and competes in NCAA Division I, fielding t ...

joined the conference from the

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

the following season.

Preseason

After a

2010 NFL draft The 2010 NFL draft was the 75th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The 2010 NFL draft, draft took place over three days, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, with the first ...

, which saw 34 Big Ten athletes selected, 12 2009 first-team All-Big Ten selections, 8 second-team selections and 33 honorable mention selections returned for the 2010 season. The Big Ten held the 2010 Football Media Days and 39th annual Kickoff Luncheon on Monday and Tuesday, August 2–3.

Schedules

In a given year, each Big Ten team will play eight of the other Big Ten teams. Thus for any given team in a given year, there are two others which will not be competed against. Below is the breakdown of each team and its two "no-plays" for 2010: *Illinois: Iowa, Wisconsin *Indiana: Michigan State, Minnesota *Iowa: Illinois, Purdue *Michigan: Minnesota, Northwestern *Michigan State: Indiana, Ohio State *Minnesota: Indiana, Michigan *Northwestern: Michigan, Ohio State *Ohio State: Michigan State, Northwestern *Penn State: Purdue, Wisconsin *Purdue: Iowa, Penn State *Wisconsin: Illinois, Penn State

Rankings

In Weeks 3 and 4, the Big Ten had six teams ranked in both polls for the first time since September 13, 2004.

Spring games

April 17 *Indiana *Iowa *Michigan *Purdue *Wisconsin April 24 *Illinois *Michigan State *Minnesota *Northwestern *Ohio State *Penn State

Season

Homecoming games

October 2 *Penn State @ Iowa 7:05 p.m. CT (Iowa's record in homecoming games is 52-41-5) *Northwestern @ Minnesota 11:00 a.m. CT (Minnesota's record in homecoming games is 54-33-3) October 9 *Illinois @ Penn State 12:00 p.m. ET (Penn State's record in homecoming games is 65-20-5) *Minnesota @ Wisconsin 11:00 a.m. ET (Wisconsin's record in homecoming games is 52-45-5) October 16 *Arkansas State @ Indiana 12:00 p.m. ET (Indiana's record in homecoming games is 43-48-6) *Iowa @ Michigan 3:30 p.m. ET (Michigan's record in homecoming games is 83–26) *Illinois @ Michigan State 12:00 p.m. ET (Michigan State's record in homecoming games is 61-30-3) *Minnesota @ Purdue 12:00 p.m. ET (Purdue's record in homecoming games is 48-35-4) October 23 *Indiana @ Illinois 11:00 a.m. CT (Illinois's record in homecoming games is 42-55-2) *Michigan State @ Northwestern 11:00 a.m. CT *Purdue @ Ohio State 12:00 p.m. ET (Ohio State's record in homecoming games is 64-19-5) On September 25,

Joe Paterno Joseph Vincent Paterno (; December 21, 1926 – January 22, 2012), sometimes referred to as JoePa, was an American college football player, athletic director, and coach. He was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions football, Penn ...

became the fifth

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

to earn 150 victories as a member of the Big Ten Conference. On October 9,

Jim Tressel James Patrick Tressel (born December 5, 1952) is an American politician and retired college football coach who has served as the 67th lieutenant governor of Ohio since 2025. A member of the Republican Party, Tressel previously was the president ...

became the first Big Ten head coach to earn 100 victories in his first ten seasons, surpassing

Bo Schembechler Glenn Edward "Bo" Schembechler Jr. ( ; April 1, 1929 – November 17, 2006) was an American college football player, coach, and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Miami University from 1963 to 1968 and at the Univers ...

and

Lloyd Carr Lloyd Henry Carr Jr. (born July 30, 1945) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Michigan from 1995 through the 2007 season, replacing Gary Moeller. Under Carr, the Michigan Wolve ...

who achieved the milestone in their 11th seasons and he did so in the third fewest games (121), behind Schembechler and

Fielding Yost Fielding Harris Yost (; April 30, 1871 – August 20, 1946) was an American college football player, coach and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at: Ohio Wesleyan University, the University of Nebraska, the University ...

(119) and ahead of

Henry Williams Henry Williams may refer to: Politicians * Henry Williams (activist) (born 2000), chief of staff of the Mike Gravel 2020 presidential campaign * Henry Williams (MP for Northamptonshire) (died 1558), member of parliament (MP) for Northamptonshire ...

(123). (The wins for the 2010 season were later vacated.) On November 6, Paterno became the first FBS coach to total 400 career wins.

Big Ten vs. BCS matchups

Attendance

Week 3 attendance (September 18) set an all-time Big Ten single-day attendance record with an average of 78,844. All eight games had crowds of over 50,000; Michigan State (78,411), Wisconsin (81,332), Ohio State (105,075) and Michigan (110,187) had sellouts; and 100,610 patrons were in attendance for Penn State. It surpassed the September 3, 2005 eight-game single-day average of 76,475. On October 9, the Big Ten set a five-game attendance record of 88,034, surpassing the 87,620, set on October 28, 1995. Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin all hosted sellouts.

Bowl games

The following is the Big Ten Bowl game schedule.

Head coaches

Ron Zook Ronald Andrew Zook (; born April 28, 1954) is an American football coach who is a special teams quality control coach at the University of Maryland. He was the head football coach at the University of Florida from 2002 to 2004 and the Universit ...

, Illinois *

Bill Lynch Bill Lynch (born June 12, 1954) is a former American football coach. He was most recently the head football coach at DePauw University, a position he held in 2004 and re-assumed in December 2012 until his retirement after the 2019 season. Lynch ...

, Indiana *

Kirk Ferentz Kirk James Ferentz (born August 1, 1955) is an American football coach. He is the head football coach at the University of Iowa, a position he has held since the 1999 season. From 1990 to 1992, Ferentz was the head football coach at the Universi ...

, Iowa *

Rich Rodriguez Richard Alan Rodriguez (; born May 24, 1963), also known as Rich Rod, is an American college football coach and former player. He is the current head football coach at West Virginia Mountaineers football, West Virginia University, his second sti ...

, Michigan *

Mark Dantonio Mark Justin Dantonio (born March 9, 1956) is an American college football coach and former player. His most recent head coaching position was at Michigan State University, a position he had held from 2007 to 2019. He led the Michigan State Spar ...

, Michigan State *

Tim Brewster Tim Brewster (born October 13, 1960) is an American football coach and former player. He is the tight ends coach for Charlotte. He also served as the tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator for the North Carolina Tar Heels football program. ...

, Minnesota (first 7 games) and Jeff Horton, Minnesota (last 5 games) *

Pat Fitzgerald Patrick William Fitzgerald Jr. (born December 2, 1974) is an American former football player and coach. He served as the head football coach of the Northwestern Wildcats from July 2006 until he was fired in July 2023 in the aftermath of a hazi ...

, Northwestern *

, Ohio State *

, Penn State *

Danny Hope Charles Daniel Hope (born January 7, 1959) is an American football coach and former player. He served as the head football coach at Eastern Kentucky University from 2003 to 2007, and Purdue University from 2009 to 2012, compiling a career colleg ...

, Purdue *

Bret Bielema Bret Arnold Bielema (; born January 13, 1970) is an American football coach. He is the head football coach at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a position he has held since the 2021 season. Bielema served as the head football coach at ...