The 1990 Big Ten Conference football season was the 95th season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Ten Conference and was a part of the 1990 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Iowa Hawkeyes won a four-way tie for the Big Ten Conference championship by defeating the three other teams atop the conference standings – Michigan, Michigan State, and Illinois – in their respective head-to-head matchups. The Hawkeyes earned their third trip to Pasadena in ten seasons, but lost 46-34 to Washington in the 1991 Rose Bowl.