INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — It's No. 1 and No. 2 when Ohio State and Indiana get together in the Big Ten Championship Game on Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium. It can't get any closer — or any better — than that.

There is very little to separate these two teams. Both are 12-0, of course, and a perfect 9-0 in the league. Ohio State has the nation's No. 1 defense, and Indiana is not far behind. The Hoosiers lead the nation in margin of victory and are, much like Ohio State, a complete team.

So how do we figure out who's better? One thing for sure is we won't use the history books. Ohio State has won 30 straight against Indiana, and are 31-0-1 since their last loss to the Hoosiers in 1988.

But this Indiana team doesn't care about Hoosier history. Second-year Indiana coach Curt Cignetti is all about the present day, and he's 23-2 at Indiana. He's 17-1 in Big Ten games, and none of that old stuff matters.

"We weren't here then,'' he's said often.

And he's right.  

One of Cignetti's two losses was at Ohio State last November. (The other was at Notre Dame in the playoffs.) But even this isn't an apt comparison because the rosters are very different. Indiana is better at quarterback, better at running back, better on the offensive line.

So we need to keep it to 2025 and Indiana and Ohio State have five common opponents. Maybe it's best to look at how they did against Illinois, Wisconsin, Penn State, Purdue and UCLA. What makes for a good barometer here are that many of the meetings came close to each other on the schedule. There were no major differences due to injuries or anything like that.

Home vs. road needs to be weighed in too, and we will. 

Here's what they did: 

OPPONENT  OHIO STATE    INDIANA
Illinois                 34-16               63-10
Wisconsin          34-0                31-7
Penn State        38-14              27-24
Purdue                34-10              56-3
UCLA                   48-10              56-6
TOTAL (Avg.).   37.6-10         56.6-10

Now, what does all that mean?

Let's take a look at each matchup, and see who has the edge:

The Fighting Illini are a great tool for comparing these two teams. They were ranked as high as No. 9 in the country, and played at Indiana on Sept. 20 and hosted Ohio State on Oct. 11. They were the best team of the five in our ''common opponents'' group.

Indiana and Illinois played the Big Ten opener, and the Hoosiers won 63-10. They marched up and down the field all day long in the rout, the largest margin of victory EVER for an Indiana team vs. a top-10 foe. Illinois had only 2 rushing yards, and quarterback Luke Altmyer had just 146 yards passing. It was his lowest total of the year until last week, when he had 136 yards passing in the snow against Northwestern.

The final score of the Ohio State game was much closer, with the Buckeyes winning 34-16. It's a bit deceiving though, because Ohio State led 20-3 at half. Ohio State didn't do a lot offensively. Julian Sayin passed for only 166 yards and they rushed for just 106 yards on 37 carries, a 2.9-yard average.

Edge — to Indiana for sure. Ohio State struggled for yards, and took advantage of three Illinois turnovers.  Indiana could have scored 100. It was so impressive that Indiana jumped from No. 19 to No. 11 in the rankings the next day.

Both teams completely dominated the Badgers, who were a complete mess this year, especially on offense. Ohio State shut them out 34-0 in Madison on Oct. 18, and Indiana beat them 31-7 in Bloomington on Nov. 15.

Wisconsin scored a touchdown on a fourth-quarter gadget play at Indiana, and that was the only time they moved the ball all day. Badgers quarterback Carter Smith passed for only 90 yards and Wisconsin rushed for 70 yards on 30 carries, a 2.3 average.

Wisconsin had just 143 yards of total offense vs. Ohio State as the Buckeyes defense completely smothered them. The Badgers were just 2-for-11 on third down. Sayin had his best game of the year at Wisconsin. He was 36-of-44 passing  for 393 yards and four touchdowns.

Edge — Push: I'm going with a push on this one because both games were so one-sided. Cignetti took his foot off the gas in this one, which is rare for him. He punted three times on fourth-and-1 instead of going for it.

Penn State was ranked No. 2 in the country in the preseason, and were the betting favorite to win the Big Ten in August. But after starting 3-0, they lost to Oregon, UCLA and Northwestern on consecutive Saturdays. James Franklin, who had coached there for 12 years, was fired.

Terry Smith, a long-time PSU assistant, was hired to replace him. He lost his first game at Iowa and then got No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana on back-to-back weekends. Now that's a good barometer.

At Ohio State on Nov. 1, Penn State played them tough for a half, trailing just 17-14 at the break. But Penn State got shut out in the second half and Ohio State won convincingly, 38-14. Sayin threw for 316 yards and receivers Carnell Tate (124 yards) and Jeremiah Smith (123) both had big days.

A week later, Smith coached his first game at Beaver Stadium in State College against No. 2 Indiana. The Hoosiers were cruising, leading 20-7 midway through the third quarter, but then the Nittany Lions suddenly scored 17 unanswered points to take the lead late. They were playing hard for their beloved interim coach.

We all know what happened next. Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza marched Indiana down the field with five straight completions in the final two minutes, and hit Omar Cooper Jr. in the back of the end zone for the win, clearly the catch of the year.

Edge to Ohio State: And this one's not even close. This was the one game in the Cignetti era where the Hoosiers let their guard down and let Penn State back in the game. 

This one isn't even remotely close, and both of these games were played at Ross-Ade Stadium in November. Ohio State won 34-10 in a methodical and easy win, but Indiana won 56-3 in crushing their arch-rivals. They have beaten Purdue by a combined score of 122-3 the past two years.

This was another game where Indiana just completely dominated with their run game. They rushed for 355 yards and completely demoralized the Boilers. It was the sixth time this season they've rushed for 300 yards or more in a game.

Edge to Indiana: And it was sweet for the Hoosiers to dominate this rivalry game.

These two game were just a a few weeks apart as well, and both teams dominated. Indiana won 56-6 in Bloomington on Oct. 25, and Ohio State won 48-10 on Nov. 15 in Columbus. The outcome was never in doubt in either game.

I will give the slight edge to Indiana on this because when they played UCLA, the Bruins were actually on a bit of a roll. After their coaching change, UCLA had won three straight before arriving in Bloomington. The Hoosiers didn't care, completing crushing them. UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava threw for a season-low 113 yards and two interceptions. 

Edge to Indiana: This is a slight edge, but Indiana's win was more dominant and they played at a time when UCLA was actually still feeling pretty good about themselves. They were never the same after that Indiana loss, and started looking ahead to next year — where ever they may be. They had checked out by the time they got to Columbus.