THE BOWL ELIGIBLE BLOG

Big Ten Football Trivia: The 18-Team Era

Fifty Big Ten trivia questions from the Bowl Eligible question bank, covering all 18 schools of the expanded league: nicknames, stadiums, Heisman winners, draft steals, and the 2026 head coaches.

This is a trivia set about a conference that now runs from New Jersey to Los Angeles. Every question is a real question from the Bowl Eligible trivia bank, filtered to the Big Ten's current 18 schools, the membership the bank carries for the 2026 season. USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington are in. So are their Heisman winners, their stadiums, and their draft picks. Fifty questions, answers included.

Round 1: The nickname gauntlet (all 18 schools)

1. What is the team name (nickname) of the Illinois football team? Fighting Illini
2. What is the team name (nickname) of the Indiana football team? Hoosiers
3. What is the team name (nickname) of the Iowa football team? Hawkeyes
4. What is the team name (nickname) of the Maryland football team? Terrapins
5. What is the team name (nickname) of the Michigan football team? Wolverines
6. What is the team name (nickname) of the Michigan State football team? Spartans
7. What is the team name (nickname) of the Minnesota football team? Golden Gophers
8. What is the team name (nickname) of the Nebraska football team? Cornhuskers
9. What is the team name (nickname) of the Northwestern football team? Wildcats
10. What is the team name (nickname) of the Ohio State football team? Buckeyes
11. What is the team name (nickname) of the Oregon football team? Ducks
12. What is the team name (nickname) of the Penn State football team? Nittany Lions
13. What is the team name (nickname) of the Purdue football team? Boilermakers
14. What is the team name (nickname) of the Rutgers football team? Scarlet Knights
15. What is the team name (nickname) of the UCLA football team? Bruins
16. What is the team name (nickname) of the USC football team? Trojans
17. What is the team name (nickname) of the Washington football team? Huskies
18. What is the team name (nickname) of the Wisconsin football team? Badgers

Round 2: Name the stadium

1. Michigan plays its home football games at which stadium? Michigan Stadium
2. Ohio State plays its home football games at which stadium? Ohio Stadium
3. Penn State plays its home football games at which stadium? Beaver Stadium
4. UCLA plays its home football games at which stadium? Rose Bowl Stadium
5. USC plays its home football games at which stadium? Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
6. Wisconsin plays its home football games at which stadium? Camp Randall Stadium

Round 3: Name his school

1. Tom Brady played college football at which school? Michigan
2. Drew Brees played college football at which school? Purdue
3. Ezekiel Elliott played college football at which school? Ohio State
4. Saquon Barkley played college football at which school? Penn State
5. J.J. Watt played college football at which school? Wisconsin
6. George Kittle played college football at which school? Iowa
7. Justin Herbert played college football at which school? Oregon
8. Drake London played college football at which school? USC

Round 4: Draft night

1. Which NFL team drafted Drew Brees? San Diego Chargers
2. Which NFL team drafted Ezekiel Elliott? Dallas Cowboys
3. Which NFL team drafted Saquon Barkley? New York Giants
4. Which NFL team drafted J.J. Watt? Houston Texans
5. In which round of the NFL Draft was Tom Brady selected? Round 6
6. In which round of the NFL Draft was George Kittle selected? Round 5
7. In which round of the NFL Draft was Stefon Diggs selected? Round 5
8. In which round of the NFL Draft was Kirk Cousins selected? Round 4
9. In which round of the NFL Draft was Isiah Pacheco selected? Round 7

Round 5: Heisman history

1. Who won the Heisman Trophy in 1975? Archie Griffin (Ohio State)
2. Who won the Heisman Trophy in 1991? Desmond Howard (Michigan)
3. Who won the Heisman Trophy in 1995? Eddie George (Ohio State)
4. Who won the Heisman Trophy in 1997? Charles Woodson (Michigan)
5. Who won the Heisman Trophy in 1999? Ron Dayne (Wisconsin)
6. Who won the Heisman Trophy in 2014? Marcus Mariota (Oregon)

Round 6: The head men (2026)

1. Who is the head coach of Ohio State? Ryan Day
2. Who is the head coach of Michigan? Kyle Whittingham
3. Who is the head coach of Iowa? Kirk Ferentz

How did you do?

Look at the draft round again. Five of its nine questions ask for a round instead of a team, and every one of those five answers is Round 4 or later: Kirk Cousins in the fourth, George Kittle and Stefon Diggs in the fifth, Tom Brady in the sixth, Isiah Pacheco in the seventh. The first-rounders in this set mostly ask which team called their name. The Big Ten's draft trivia, it turns out, is a story about steals.

The Heisman round runs from Archie Griffin in 1975 to Marcus Mariota in 2014, and Ohio State and Michigan own four of the six answers between them. The western schools are the trap in this set. Their history did not change when the conference did, it just moved in with everybody else's. The bank carries thousands more Big Ten questions, and the daily game mixes them with the rest of the country. Play it in Gridiron Trivia, and check our conference realignment map if you want the story of how an 18-team league spanning four time zones came to be.