2026 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. Also, the formula for my predictions here is different than for my Power Rankings. In other words, for a particular conference, one team may appear higher than another team here, but be ranked behind that same team in the PR.

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 last year), 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 4 main preview magazines (Phil Steele, Lindy's, Athlon, and Sporting News), 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 25-2/.926/1st

Ohio St 24-3/.889/2nd

Michigan 21-6/.778/3rd

Iowa 19-8/.704/4th

Penn St 18-9/.667/5th

Washington 18-9/.667/5th

Indiana 18-9/.667/5th

USC 16-11/.593/8th

Illinois 14-13/.519/9th

Minnesota 13-14/.481/10th

Northwestern 11-16/.407/11th

UCLA 10-17/.370/12th

Wisconsin 10-17/.370/12th

Nebraska 10-17/.370/12th

Rutgers 9-18/.333/15th

Maryland 6-21/.222/16th

Mich St 6-21/.222/16th

Purdue 3-24/.111/18th


6-Year History


Ohio St 45-5/.900/1st

Oregon 42-8/.840/2nd

Michigan 40-11/.784/3rd

USC 32-18/.640/5th

Iowa 37-16/.698/4th

Wash 31-18/.633/6th

Penn St 33-21/.611/7th

Minnesota 27-25/.519/8th

Indiana 26-26/.500/9th

UCLA 25-27/.481/10th

Illinois 25-28/.472/11th

Wisconsin 23-28/.451/12th

Northwestern 19-33/.365/13th

Mich St 18-34/.346/14th

Purdue 17-34/.333/15th

Nebraska 17-36/.321/16th

Maryland 15-35/.300/17th

Rutgers 15-39/.278/18th



10-Year History


Ohio St 78-8/.907/1st

Michigan 66-21/.759/2nd

Oregon 61-25/.709/3rd

Penn St 61-29/.678/4th

USC 58-28/.674/5th

Wash 57-28/.671/6th

Iowa 58-31/.652/7th

Wisconsin 51-36/.586/8th

Minnesota 44-44/.500/9th

Northwestern 40-48/.455/10th

Indiana 39-49/.443/11th

UCLA 38-50/.432/12th

Mich St 35-53/.398/13th

Illinois 33-56/.371/14th

Nebraska 32-57/.360/15th

Purdue 30-57/.345/16th

Maryland 24-62/.279/17th

Rutgers 18-72/.200/18th


Predicted Finish:



  1. Ohio State

  2. Oregon

  3. Indiana

  4. Michigan

  5. USC

  6. Iowa

  7. Penn State

  8. Washington

  9. Minnesota

  10. Illinois

  11. Nebraska

  12. UCLA

  13. Wisconsin

  14. Northwestern

  15. Maryland

  16. Michigan State

  17. Rutgers

  18. Purdue


Conference Champion: Oregon



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

 

Don’t be surprised if… Indiana once again gets into the Big Ten CG.


I’m not convinced… Michigan will finish in the top 4, and maybe not even the top 6. I think Iowa, USC or 

Washington could claim the 4th spot.



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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