Championship Week was a good idea on paper but when three games were cancelled, it went from being a celebration of Big Ten football to more of a, "Just get us to the finish line" outside of the annual Big Ten Championship Game.

Outside of the Ohio State versus Northwestern game, there were only three other Big Ten games on the slate, one on Friday night and then two that took place on Saturday and while two of them were decided by one-score margins, it was not a celebration of much.

We are going to break one of our rules here and put the Ohio State game in the lead spot of this feature because it is hard to get excited over Penn State versus Illinois or Nebraska versus Rutgers, and while Minnesota versus Wisconsin is a historical game and it did come down to overtime, if you watched the game, you understand why we can't in good faith highlight this piece with that contest.

Okay, we have covered all of this, Ohio State had a touchdown taken off the board on its first drive when a Harry Miller holding call negated a Justin Fields rushing touchdown and Ohio State had to settle for a field goal. Little did we know that was going to be a theme as the Northwestern defense would not break all that often when Ohio State got inside the red zone.

Northwestern would put up 10 points in the first half and then would be held off the scoreboard but that was more of a direct result of the Ohio State defense taking the ball away, really keeping a disjointed offense in the game.

Did we mention that Ohio State was down about 20 players once again? Yeah, that is important when one of them is Chris Olave.

Ohio State would ride the hot hand of Trey Sermon as he set an Ohio State single-game rushing record at 331 yards as the Cats had no answer for him. The biggest question that Ohio State fans had, even more than, "What is wrong with Justin Fields" is "Why aren't they running the ball more?". Ohio State finally settled in on the run and Sermon found the end zone twice.

It was not a pretty game, it certainly has put a lot of Ohio State fans on edge but once again, the Buckeyes went into a game down several starters due to positive COVID tests and came out with the win.

It wasn't pretty but it was for an axe, Paul Bunyan's axe for that matter.

Minnesota will spend the offseason looking for a kicker as a missed FG in the first overtime of the game left the door wide open for the Badgers and Collin Larsh would not miss from 30-yards out, giving the Badgers the big win and the trophy to take home to Madison (Wis.).

It was not much of a game from a stats angle, Tanner Morgan threw for 160 yards while Graham Mertz through for 132 yards. While both of those totals were more than what Justin Fields threw for, neither of these teams got anywhere near 331 yards on the ground.

This game marked the 130th time these two teams have played one another and was a make-up date for a November cancellation.

Each of these two teams end Big Ten play with just three wins on the season, a disappointing end for teams that were both mentioned as potential division winners. The Badgers will take part in a bowl game while the Gophers have opted to end their season.

If you like points in a game, at least you had something here, but it was not much of a contest, even if the Illini did go up 21-14 in a wild first quarter that saw a combined 42 points put on the board.

Jahan Dotson had six catches for 189 yards and two scores while Sean Clifford went for 285 yards on 16/22 passing. The Nittany Lions finally had a ground game as well as the team went for 253 yards and four scores.

On the other side, the Illini are just counting down the days until Bret Bielema can step into the head coaching role as 273 yards of total offense was put up on the board.

Illinois has not had a winning season in football since 2011.

Penn State lost its first five games of the season and then won its last four and can at least look back at this season as a learning experience after getting decimated by opt-outs and injuries.

But we don't need to see this one again.

Several Big Ten teams shut down their seasons and that leaves a slate of five B1G bowl games (someone really should give Army a chance to play, but that is for another story).

The Big Ten will see its games all happen within a four-day window, starting off on the 30th of this month with the Badgers taking on Wake Forest in the Duke's Mayo Bowl (formerly the Belk Bowl). Wisconsin is about a touchdown favorite, but with their issues scoring the ball, the forecast must be for a low scoring affair.

Iowa will take on Missouri of the SEC later in the Music City Bowl. The Hawkeyes are around a two touchdown favorite and are the league's biggest favorite for all of you who do bowl pools with confidence points.

There are a pair of New Year's Day bowls with Auburn and Northwestern there in the afternoon with the Cats around a three-point favorite, give or take. This will be one of those games where the team that wants to be there the most should have the edge, the Auburn Tigers are still in a coaching search and while ending the year on a win would be worth a lot, the Cats won't make it easy.

Then there is Ohio State and Clemson. Stay tuned here for an inordinate amount of previewing of that game.

Finally there will be the Outback Bowl between Ole Miss and Indiana. The Hoosiers were left out of the New Year's Six, an absolute sham of a decision. The Hoosiers are about a touchdown favorite at this time but still won't have Michael Penix at quarterback. Jack Tuttle will step in and will go against a really bad Mississippi defense and this could be a good day for the Hoosiers.