Results and team statistics

Key
AP final = Team's rank in the final AP Poll of the 1962 season^[1]
AP high = Team's highest rank in the AP Poll throughout the 1962 season^[1]
PPG = Average of points scored per game^[1]
PAG = Average of points allowed per game^[1]
MVP = Most valuable player as voted by players on each team as part of the voting process to determine the winner of the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy; trophy winner in bold^[2]

Preseason

There were no changes in the conference's head football coaches between the 1961 and 1962 seasons.

Regular season

Bowl games

On January 1, 1963, USC (ranked No. 1) defeated Wisconsin (ranked No. 2), 42–37, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. This was the first No. 1 versus No. 2 match-up to occur in a bowl game. Ron Vander Kelen, the Wisconsin quarterback and Pete Beathard, the USC quarterback, were both named the Rose Bowl Player of the Game. Down 42–14 in the fourth quarter, Vander Kelen put together a number of drives to score 23 unanswered points and put the Badgers in position to win the game.

Post-season developments

There were no changes in the conference's head football coaches between the 1962 and 1963 seasons.

Passing yards

Rushing yards

Receiving yards

Total yards

Scoring

All-Big Ten honors

The following players were picked by the Associated Press (AP) and/or the United Press International (UPI) as first-team players on the 1962 All-Big Ten Conference football team.

All-American honors

At the end of the 1962 season, Big Ten players secured four of the 11 consensus first-team picks for the 1962 College Football All-America Team.^[3] The Big Ten's consensus All-Americans were:

Other Big Ten players who were named first-team All-Americans by at least one selector were:

Other awards

Bobby Bell of Minnesota won the Outland Trophy as the best interior lineman in college football. He also finished third in the voting of the Heisman Trophy.^[4]