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Mental mistakes: Most penalized B1G teams in the last 5 seasons
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Penalties, penalties, penalties.
Every coach hates them, but which Big Ten teams commit them the most often?
After looking back at the last five years of data, the answer might be surprising. Penalties can be costly, but they don’t always dictate the winner or loser of a game.
Ohio State has been by far the most penalized team in the Big Ten over the past five seasons when looking at the raw numbers. The Buckeyes have committed 425 penalties across 66 games, while Maryland is the next closest with 385 penalties in 54 games. However, that gives the Terps the nod for penalties per game with 7.1.
Still, it’s surprising to see Ohio State near the top of the penalties-per-game rankings given its run of success of the past five seasons. The Buckeyes have won the Big Ten in each of the last five years.
As for the least-penalized team, it’s not surprising: Northwestern. The Wildcats have always been exceptionally disciplined under coach Pat Fitzgerald. They’ve committed just 261 penalties since 2016. Northwestern also leads in penalties-per-game, at just over 4.4.
Iowa, Penn State and Northwestern are few of the other teams who have been penalized the least in recent years.
Here’s the raw numbers for every Big Ten team’s penalties from 2016-20 (data is via cfbstats.com):
- Ohio State: 425
- Maryland: 385
- Illinois: 364
- Michigan State: 363
- Nebraska: 357
- Rutgers: 352
- Michigan: 346
- Indiana: 342
- Purdue: 305
- Wisconsin: 302
- Iowa: 286
- Penn State: 279
- Minnesota: 266
- Northwestern: 261
Spenser is the news manager at Saturday Road and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.