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Stadium Game Highlights Big 10 Weekend

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Stadium Game Highlights Big 10 Weekend

Indiana vs Wisconsin. Andy Marsh photo.

Indiana defeated Wisconsin Saturday to move to 2-0 in their Big 10 East schedule.

For IU, the win, secured their top spot in the Big 10 East. But bigger than that, it was their first on-campus game in close to three years, and played at Memorial Stadium, the school's football stadium.

IU were without two of their top players in Will Chevalier and Noah Brown, who are with the USA 7s program in their preseason camp. 

Still IU won 69-21; the second East Division game in which the Hoosiers have scored 69 points. But it was having a large number of fans (not large in terms of the stadium, but certainly in terms of the rugby team) in the stadium that made it special.

"It was unreal," said wing Peyton Wall. "We had over 400 people there. Every try there was an eruption. It was amazing. We are trying to figure out if we can do it every year."

At 2-0, and having already beaten Ohio State in a crossover match, IU is on the inside track to win the Big 10, but they haven't finished the job yet. Purdue caps off the divisional schedule, and then the semis are on November 5.

Also in the East, Illinois defeated Purdue in impressive fashion 52-7. That put the clearly improving Illini at 2-1 and secured 2nd in the East for them. Wisconsin has clinched 3rd.

In the Big 10 West, Ohio State defeated Michigan State 26-3.

Ohio State DOR Tom Rooney says injuries have been brutal for the Buckeyes this year. Still they produced a bonus-point win to finish off their divisional season at 3-0, with Notre Dame 2-1.

"We are remaining alive," said Roony about the injuries ... "barely."

Michigan State drops to 1-1 and will take on 0-2 Michigan next week in the Battle for the Mitten rivalry match.

November 5 will see the conference semifinals with the #1 from the East vs the #2 from the West, and vice versa. So we'll almost certainly see Indiana vs Notre Dame and Ohio State vs Illinois.

On November 12, Notre Dame hosts the finals, with everyone playing. The schedule would be as follows:

Final (Semifinals winners against each other)

3rd/4th (Losing semifinalists against each other)

5th/6th (Wisconsin vs Michigan or Michigan State)

7th/8th (Purdue vs Michigan or Michigan State)

Big 10 East W L T PF PA PD BT BL Pts
Indiana 2 0 0 138 36 102 2 0 10
Illinois 2 1 0 103 105 -2 2 0 10
Wisconsin 1 2 0 117 105 12 2 1 7
Purdue 0 2 0 7 119 -112 0 0 0
                   
Big 10 West W L T PF PA PD BT BL Pts
Ohio State 3 0 0 125 38 87 3 0 15
Notre Dame 2 1 0 93 63 30 2 0 10
Michigan State 1 1 0 27 65 -38 1 0 5
Michigan 0 2 0 26 84 -58 0 0 0