INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana coach Curt Cignetti has been here before. Twice.

His second-ranked Hoosiers, just like first-ranked Ohio State, have not.

For the first time in more than a decade and just the third time since conference championship games were standardized, the nation’s top-ranked teams will play for a title.

The two previous top-ranked conference title games were in the Southeastern Conference in 2008-09 when Florida and Alabama went back to back.

Cignetti was on Nick Saban’s Alabama coaching staff. And, yes, experience could matter.

“A year late,” Cignetti joked after Indiana punched its ticket by routing Purdue. “I had the opportunity to be part of a couple of those at Alabama when we played Florida and (Tim) Tebow and Urban (Meyer) two years in a row. It’s going to be a great atmosphere. I think — no I know — you’re playing this game for a reason. A Big Ten championship means an awful lot.”

The Buckeyes (12-0) and Hoosiers (12-0) are in similar positions. The are playoff locks, with good chances at a first-round bye no matter what happens in Indianapolis on Saturday.

But the contrast between these programs couldn’t be starker.

Ohio State owns eight national championships, is closing in on program win No. 1,000 and has claimed at least three Big Ten crowns in every decade from the 1930s through 2010s.

Despite the steady parade of players from Columbus to the NFL, the Buckeyes watched the last four Big Ten title games from home — a drought that coincided with their four-game losing streak to dreaded Michigan. That streak ended last week and this week the defending national champs hope to fulfill another preseason goal by hoisting their first Big Ten trophy in five years.

“We’re excited we put ourselves in a position to have a chance to play for the Big Ten championship,” All-American Caleb Downs said. “We’re going to go at it with a lot of energy and put everything into it this week and then go play as well as we can Saturday.”

As a program, the Hoosiers are relative newcomers to the big stage.

They finally shed the label of the FBS’ losingest program last month, then completed the first perfect regular season in school history and are now seeking their third Big Ten title. The first came in 1945, the last in 1967, leaving Indiana tied with Minnesota for the conference’s longest active title drought.

The Hoosiers have an experienced roster with key players who have played for championships in previous stops and, oh yeah, Cignetti. They also can rely on the lessons learned from their only losses last season — at Ohio State and at national runner-up Notre Dame.

“We fell short in the moment,” first team all-conference linebacker Aiden Fisher said, reflecting on those defeats. “Coach Cignetti said it kind of got a little too big for us, and I think we went in with too much of an underdog mentality. This year, every single game we’ve been in there’s been no doubt at all. It’s never crept in that, ‘Oh, we might lose this game.’”

There’s no reason to change that philosophy now in a contest that features the nation’s two stingiest scoring defenses, two of the nation’s top-15 scoring offenses, the nation’s two most efficient quarterbacks and major college football’s last two unbeaten teams.

“I don’t expect any handouts,” Cignetti said. “We’ve earned everything up to this point, and we’ve got to earn it on Saturday.”

Heisman battle

Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza and Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin are going head to head as top Heisman Trophy contenders. Some believe this game could determine the trophy’s winner. Though nobody wants to talk about the race, there is some mutual admiration between the two.

“Julian Sayin and I never officially met, however, through high school we used a similar quarterback coach,” Mendoza said. “And this year we had a lot of overlap games, and we were able to watch their film. I really respect Julian, he is effective and he fits the offense perfectly.”

On the move

Buckeyes offensive coordinator coach Brian Hartline accepted his first head coaching job, at South Florida, on Wednesday. But unlike other coaches, Hartline isn’t going anywhere yet. Coach Ryan Day said Wednesday that Hartline would stay with his alma mater through the playoffs.

“The timing isn’t great, but that’s not Brian’s fault. Instead of being upset about it, we’re going to embrace it,” Day said. “I’m really happy for he and his family. He’s put in a lot of hard work here.”

Red banner day

The football game serves as the nightcap of a rare, red-themed tripleheader in Indiana.

In addition to the scarlet-clad Buckeyes and crimson-colored Hoosiers, there are two Top 25 men’s basketball games, too. At noon, No. 1 Purdue hosts No. 10 Iowa State, whose colors include cardinal red, and at 2 p.m. No. 22 Indiana plays another red-colored team, No. 6 Louisville just a few blocks away from Lucas Oil.

Thoughts on a 73-64 loss to the Golden Gophers:

A sparse Barn crowd. A Minnesota team dealing with injuries, losers of three straight.

Didn’t matter.

Welcome to the Big Ten, new-look Hoosiers.

Niko Medved and the Golden Gophers had the game plan to slow down Indiana’s offense. On the perimeter, deny Lamar Wilkerson and Tucker DeVries in-rhythm 3-point looks and make sure they don’t kill you on back cuts. Live with others, like Tayton Conerway, shooting them.

Live, too, with Indiana’s bigs getting opportunities against your depleted frontcourt 1-on-1. Keep the score down, the pace slow. Play hard, give max effort and see how it goes.

While Indiana scored on its first six possessions and countered Minnesota’s defensive strategy effectively, the Hoosiers scored on just eight of their final 23 possessions in the first half. Indiana has looked fluid, comfortable and in control offensively for much of the season. But as this game wore on, the Hoosiers appeared anything but. Possessions stalled. Little came easily. The Minnesota crowd got into it and Indiana seemed to wilt under the spotlight of its first true road game of the season.

The Hoosiers responded early in the second half to Minnesota’s physical style, going hard to the rim and looking for fouls. The problem was that the free-throw shooting just wasn’t there. Reed Bailey got fouled early, making 1-of-2. Not much later, Wilkerson was fouled and went 1-of-2. Conerway then missed two in a row. Next up was Bailey again, making 1-of-2.  Then Sam Alexis missed two straight on a trip. These all came in the first seven and a half minutes of the second half, Indiana going just 3-of-10 from the line. The Hoosiers finished the contest 12-of-20 (60 percent) from the charity stripe.

After those Alexis missed free throws, Minnesota went on a run. Isaac Asuma hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 43. Cade Tyson followed with a 3-pointer of his own. A third 3-pointer during this stretch at the 9:25 mark by Jaylen Crocker-Johnson put the Golden Gophers up eight points, 53-45. The Hoosiers cut it to two points on a DeVries 3-pointer in transition after a Wilkerson steal at the 7:49 mark, but that was as close as they’d get the rest of the way. Minnesota bumped the lead out to 10 with 4:08 to go. Indiana did make a run at it by going to a full-court press that flummoxed the Golden Gophers a bit. And Wilkerson did find some success on back cuts on his way to 15 points. But the Hoosiers couldn’t get enough shots to fall to pull out the comeback, getting the deficit down to three points with 2:00 to play before settling on a nine-point loss.

The Hoosiers scored just .97 points per possession in this one, a season-low. Their effective field goal percentage of 47.3 was the second-lowest of the season thus far. After hiking up some 3s late to try and get back into it, Indiana also finished just 8-of-27 (29.6 percent) from 3-point range. Minnesota turned the ball over on 24.2 percent of its possessions, which helped Indiana to 22 points off turnovers.

Bailey mustered just a 1-of-5 performance with four rebounds in 20 minutes of action. Aside from his performance at Kansas State, he’s struggled against physical frontcourt play this season. Sam Alexis fared better off the bench with 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting, pulling in three boards in 19 minutes.

This won’t be the last time Big Ten opponents dare Indiana’s frontcourt and supporting cast to beat them.

For a night, it worked.

For the season? Indiana’s got to figure it out.

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

See More: The Minute After, Minnesota Golden Gophers