College Football Preview Part XXIV- Big Ten

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Welcome Back!

Today I continue my conference previews. These previews will attempt to predict how each conference finishes, but realize that doing so is extremely difficult, especially since no conference has a balanced schedule. Also, whatever the conferences come up with in the form of tiebreakers will make a huge difference, as all but the Sun Belt have done away with divisions. In addition, these predictions aren't my personal opinion; they are the result of the formula/model/statistical analysis/whatever. I will sometimes mention my thoughts in the narratives below the predictions.

The list of records for 3-years, 6-years, and 10 years are conference records only, and do not include any results for the conference championship games. You will notice that the teams haven't all played the same number of games, especially when considering they should have. This is because that teams played a varied number of games in 2020, and that sometimes games get cancelled (see Virginia in 2022, for example). In the case of teams switching conferences, I counted the record from their previous conference. Independent teams joining a conference were counted with their full record (UMass), but FCS teams moving up enter with 0-0 records.

In case you are interested, I get all of my information from various sources. I use the 3 main preview magazines (Phil Steele, Lindy's, and Athlon), but I also use many different websites, including (but not limited to): Google, Winsipedia, sports-reference.com, ESPN.com, TeamRankings.com, NCAA.com, and, of course, individual school websites.

I don't have a staff- it's just me- so all of the research is my own from these various sources (it doesn't help when they contradict each other...), so any mistakes are mine. I also don't have an editor/proofreader, so you are likely to find several (many? I hope not) typos, such as commas where periods should be (or vice versa), a misspelled or missing word, doubled words ("the the" in the middle of a sentence, for example), etc. 

Finally, feel free to leave a comment. Interacting is much of the fun! Of course, if you know me personally, feel free to just text. I'll get that a lot quicker.

So, on with the previews!


Big Ten


3-Year History


Oregon 24-3/.889/1st

Michigan 23-4/..852/2nd

Ohio St 23-4/.852/2nd

Penn St 22-5/.815/4th

Washington 20-7/.741/5th

Iowa 18-9/.667/6th

USC 17-10/.630/7th

Illinois 14-13/.519/8th

UCLA 13-14/.481/9th

Minnesota 13-14/.481/9th

Wisconsin 12-15/.444/11th

Indiana 11-16/.407/12th

Purdue 9-18/.333/13th

Maryland 9-18/.333/13th

Nebraska 9-18/.333/13th

Mich St 8-19/.296/16th

Northwestern 8-19/.296/16th

Rutgers 8-19/.296/16th


6-Year History


Ohio St 45-5/.900/1st

Oregon 42-8/.840/2nd

Michigan 39-12/.765/3rd

Iowa 37-16/.698/4th

Penn St 37-17/.685/5th

USC 32-18/.640/6th

Wash 30-19/.612/7th

Minnesota 29-23/.558/8th

Wisconsin 28-23/.549/9th

UCLA 26-26/.500/10th

Illinois 24-29/.453/11th

Indiana 22-30/.423/12th

Mich St 21-31/.404/13th

Purdue 20-31/.392/14th

Northwestern 16-36/.308/15th

Nebraska 16-37/.302/16th

Maryland 15-35/.300/17th

Rutgers 13-41/.241/18th


10-Year History


Ohio St 76-9/.894/1st

Michigan 65-21/.756/2nd

Oregon 60-26/.698/3rd

Penn St 62-27/.697/4th

Iowa 60-28/.682/5th

USC 57-29/.663/6th

Wash 56-29/.659/7th

Wisconsin 55-31/.640/8th

Northwestern 42-45/.483/9th

Mich St 41-46/.471/10th

Minnesota 41-46/.471/10th

UCLA 40-48/.455/12th

Indiana 32-55/.368/13th

Purdue 31-55/.360/14th

Nebraska 31-57/.352/15th

Illinois 30-58/.341/16th

Maryland 24-61/.282/17th

Rutgers 17-72/.191/18th


Predicted Finish:


  1. Ohio State

  2. Penn State

  3. Oregon

  4. Michigan

  5. Iowa

  6. Indiana

  7. USC

  8. Illinois

  9. Washington

  10. Minnesota

  11. Nebraska

  12. Wisconsin

  13. Michigan State

  14. UCLA

  15. Rutgers

  16. Northwestern

  17. Purdue

  18. Maryland


Conference Champion: Ohio State


Chances to make the playoff: Guaranteed. With the CFP at 12 teams, as many as 4 or 5 could qualify, but I think 3 or 4 is the likely number.

 

Don’t be surprised if… Oregon upsets Penn State and makes it back into the Big Ten CG.


I’m not convinced… Indiana will be able to repeat their success, as I see them dropping to the 5-8 range within the Big Ten.



Make sure you come back tomorrow as I continue my previews!


Until next time, may you and your loved ones be blessed!   

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