Pat Fitzgerald doesn’t need to look up who the favorite is.

Northwestern’s coach knew when his team clinched the Big Ten West Division Nov. 10, with two regular season games left to play, it wouldn’t be his Wildcats.

Everyone’s eyes shifted to Michigan and Ohio State. The conversation focused on whether it would be the Wolverines or the Buckeyes who would use the Wildcats as a stepping stone to a possible berth in the College Football Playoff. Northwestern’s resume didn’t matter.

More:Jeff Brohm taking Purdue full speed ahead into a brighter tomorrow

More:5 areas IU football must improve next season

So call it disrespectful. Call it the stark reality of No. 6 Ohio State (11-1, 8-1 in Big Ten) owning a piece of real estate at this level that No. 21 Northwestern (8-4, 8-1) is still trying to prove it has the bank to buy. It doesn’t matter. The fact is Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium, as the Wildcats look to claim their first conference title since they won a share of the 2000 crown, the Buckeyes will try for their second straight and take one last shot at proving it’s one of the nation’s top four teams.

“I don’t think anybody outside these doors would pick us to win this game,” Fitzgerald said. “My mom and dad I guess would. I don’t even know if my sisters will, so we’ll see. But I don’t need them. I just need the 74 guys who are going to put on purple and white on Saturday.”

Meyer, who missed OSU’s first three games due to a suspension that arose from his handling of allegations of domestic abuse involving a now-former assistant coach, said he doesn’t think his Buckeyes belong in the national championship conversation yet. He also said while they’ve been a part of those debates each year the playoff has existed, he doesn’t think they affected practices before the conference title games in 2014 and 2017. Ohio State won both and made the playoff in the former, when it won the national title.

But while Meyer claimed “zero” thought has been given to trying to make this win impressive to the point the selection committee can’t leave his team out, a couple players acknowledged this is their last shot.

“In situations like this, it’s just great to get the win because you’ll have a conference championship in your belt,” said Buckeyes wide receiver Terry McLaurin, the 2013 IndyStar Mr. Football out of Cathedral. “But, it’s pretty obvious that the committee looks at how you beat teams.”

How Ohio State beat Michigan last week certainly sent a message.

“Now that we know that we know we are capable of achieving what we just did Saturday, we know we have to answer beyond that to convince the committee to go to the playoffs," said defensive tackle Dre’mont Jones.

It’s a team on a mission.

Fitzgerald said, “Everything,” and laughed when he was asked what concerned him about Ohio State. He started with the Buckeyes’ offensive line and went point by point through the rest of a team that has the Big Ten’s most potent offense and is tied for second in sacks.

Ohio State’s running backs can turn one missed tackle into a touchdown against his bend-don’t-break defense. Dwayne Haskins, who’s thrown for 4,081 yards, 42 touchdowns and just seven interceptions, is “as efficient and explosive” a quarterback as he’s seen. The defensive line’s second unit isn’t any sort of a break from the first. The punt unit is “ridiculous.” And so on.

While Fitzgerald didn’t have his players look ahead to film on either Michigan or Ohio State in the two weeks leading up to this past Saturday, he took the liberty of doing so himself.

“After I got done watching Michigan, I’m like, ‘Man, I hope we don’t play these guys,’” Fitzgerald said. “And then after I got done watching Ohio State, I’m like, ‘Man, I hope we don’t play these guys.’ It was a lose-lose from a schematic standpoint, coaching standpoint and pads standpoint.”

But he’s confident, as his players are, if the Wildcats stick to their preparation and play clean, they’ll have a shot.

Northwestern rebounded from a 1-3 start that featured two regrettable nonconference losses at home to Duke and Akron. As the Buckeyes hold up wins against Penn State and Michigan, the Wildcats boast victories against Iowa, Michigan State and Wisconsin.

“This is an unbelievable opportunity, especially for our seniors,” said Fitzgerald, the 2018 Big Ten Coach of the Year. “You get 60 minutes to go win the Big Ten Championship.”

Superback Cameron Green likes that Northwestern is the underdog. He said that’ll make it feel that much better when his Wildcats win. Right guard Tommy Doles said he learned over his time with the program that he and his teammates aren’t always going to garner the most attention. Doles may be more concerned with what’s going on inside the program, but he’d appreciate a little more love if Northwestern wins.

“Everyone who’s playing football at this level takes a lot pride in what they want to do and they want to get respect for things they have done,” said Doles, whose team has won 15 of its last 18 conference matchups.

One of the first things Doles said he did when he committed to Northwestern as a member of the 2014 recruiting class was text Clayton Thorson, a member of that class and the Wildcats’ starting quarterback. Doles said, “Let’s go win a Big Ten championship.”

They both want to deliver on that. They want this game to cement Northwestern’s place as a perennial contender alongside Ohio State, not resemble a flash in a pan.

“We’re not just happy just to be here,” Thorson said. “We want to go out there and win it.”

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Jordan Guskey on Twitter at @JordanGuskey or email him at jguskey@gannett.com.

BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Northwestern vs. Ohio State

Kickoff: 8 p.m., Saturday, Lucas Oil Stadium.

TV: FOX