2025 College Football Preview: Big Ten

Photo by Barry Reeger from The Associated Press

HaS tHe BiG tEn OvErTaKeN tHe SeC?!?

These are things national media talks about with one of the big two conferences in college football.

If that’s something you care about, then that’s fine. Everyone is entitled to talk about what they want to talk about.

But I think that’s dumb and you should save your precious time not caring about that.

But the Big Ten is trying to win their third straight title, and they have some excellent teams that can do so.

Tier 1: Title Contenders

Ohio State Buckeyes

Last year’s National Champions bring back the two best players in college football (Jeremiah Smith & Caleb Downs), bring in the 4th ranked recruiting class in the country, and have a great head coach in Ryan Day.

And yes, he is a great coach.

I know the past few Michigan games have been rough, but he’s great.

Unless something astronomical happens, Ohio State is a perennial title contender for the National Title, let alone the Big Ten.

Penn State Nittany Lions

But if Ohio State has one big threat for the Big Ten, it is Penn State, who brings back loads of experience.

The only points of change for Penn State is losing Abdul Carter and Tyler Warren, but Penn State has proven year after year that they can produce excellent edge rushers and tight ends.

They also need to replace many receivers which, frankly, the ones they had last year weren’t very good anyway.

Quarterback Drew Allar will now have a second year under offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, and the Nittany Lions pulled off a heist to steal Ohio State’s former defensive coordinator Jim Knowles.

The talent on the team and the staff is obvious.

If not this year for Penn State, then when?

(Did I write that last year, too?)

Oregon Ducks

After Bo Nix graduated and left Oregon, many wondered how the Ducks would do in their first year in the Big Ten with new quarterback Dillon Gabriel.

The answer was winning the entire conference.

Now, Gabriel is gone, but his backup last year Dante Moore will step in with experience in the program and with Oregon’s offense.

The rest of the roster? Absolutely excellent.

Oregon has had a top 5 recruiting class the past two seasons, and Dan Lanning has been incredibly successful at Oregon.

Tier 2: Dark Horses

Michigan Wolverines

Michigan’s defense last year was outstanding.

The offense was…terrible.

However, true freshman and top ranked recruit Bryce Underwood is now at Michigan, and Jim Harbaugh didn’t leave Sherrone Moore much to work with after bolting to the NFL last year.

So with another year to build up, and the possibility of Bryce Underwood hitting quickly, Michigan might get back to title contention quicker than people think.

Iowa Hawkeyes

Iowa’s defense is always good, so that’s that on that front.

But the offense is always the big question mark.

Former South Dakota State quarterback Mark Gronowski will take the reins, and if he performs like he did in South Dakota, Iowa should be a threat.

But that is a big, big if, considering Iowa’s offensive history.

Indiana Hoosiers

Curt Cignetti came into Bloomington last year for his first year as head coach, and decided building an extremely portal heavy roster was the best course of action.

He was right, as Indiana went 11-2 and made the college football playoff.

Indiana. Made the college football playoff.

Now, the downside of that, is that those players are now gone.

So Cignetti hit the portal again on the offensive side of the ball with quarterback Fernando Mendoza from Cal and running back Lee Beebe from UAB.

It worked last year, and the schedule is pretty easy once again for Indiana.

So who am I to say it can’t happen again?

Illinois Fighting Illini

Illinois also benefits from an easy schedule, only playing one of the top Big Ten teams when they face Ohio State at home.

But unlike Indiana, Illinois benefits from having consistency on the roster.

The Illini are 4th in the nation in returning production from last year for a team that won 10 games last season, so the confidence to run that back again this season is high in Illinois.

The problem is, they went 5-1 in one score games last season, and some of them were to not so good opponents.

If that even falls back to around .500 in one score games, it might keep Illinois away from Indianapolis.

Tier 3: Bowl Game Bound?

USC Trojans

I don’t know, man.

I’m bored of the Lincoln Riley era in USC.

They’re good, but not that good.

They’ll make a bowl, but they won’t fight for the Big Ten title.

Is that good enough for a school like USC? I don’t think so.

It’s run its course, in my opinion.

Nebraska Cornhuskers

Before last year, it had been since 2016 that Nebraska went to a bowl game.

So Matt Rhule is making significant progress early in Lincoln.

Still, it will take time before they can be considered title threats, which is what Nebraska should be.

Washington Huskies

The bright spot for Washington last year was Demond Williams Jr at quarterback, who was the 4th best QB from QBR in the Big Ten last year.

But the defense has to be better, and Williams is still young and inexperienced.

It should be a better year in Seattle for the Huskies, but a bowl should be the expectation. Not Indy.

Michigan State Spartans

Jonathan Smith can coach.

He did a great job at Oregon State, and the Spartans barely missed a bowl in year one of Smith’s tenure last season.

And while the end of the season for Michigan State was an abject disaster, there should still be improvement in year two.

That one extra win is a bowl game.

I don’t think that’s asking for too much.

Rutgers Scarlett Knights

I said earlier that Ohio State, until further notice, needs to be title contenders.

Well, Greg Schiano’s tenure has shown me that Rutgers, until further notice, should be a bowl team.

They went bowling the last two seasons, and Schiano has gone bowling in 8 of his 16 seasons, which doesn’t sound good, but it sounds better when you consider that in 5 of those seasons, he had to fix an absolute mess (4 in the non-portal era, 1 in the portal era).

Schiano just works at Rutgers. End of story.

UCLA Bruins

UCLA was expected to be a tire fire last year, after Chip Kelly left to be Ohio State’s offensive coordinator late in the coaching cycle, and they were left with DeShaun Foster as head coach, which people didn’t think was a real hire.

Despite that, the Bruins finished the year hot, and went 5-7.

Now, after some messy offseason drama in Knoxville, Nico Iamaleava is in town to be the Bruins starting quarterback.

Is Iamaleava good enough for an extra win?

I think so, but the Bruins schedule is extremely difficult.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

Minnesota Golden Gophers

Minnesota has been consistently good under P.J. Fleck, and occasionally great, but you never really see it coming.

So, until it’s consistently great, I’m simply going to assume that Minnesota will be bowling this winter and that’s that.

Tier 4: Better Luck Next Year

Maryland Terrapins

It’s a true freshman at QB for the Terps this year in Malik Washington, and that’s exciting for the Terps.

But around that, it’s kind of a disaster.

The team was raided in the portal like crazy, and Mike Locksley, who hasn’t had great seasons in College Park in general, flat out admitted that he lost the locker room last season.

Unless Washington clicks super quickly to the college game, this feels like the end of the line for Locksley at Maryland.

Wisconsin Badgers

Luke Fickell came to Wisconsin and, for some reason, tried to reinvent the wheel on offense, turning a run heavy offense into a pass heavy offense with Phil Longo as offensive coordinator.

It did not work.

Now, they’re getting back to basics, and I think that’s a good idea.

The problem is, there are 5 games on Wisconsin’s schedule that I’m marking down as losses already, meaning the Badgers need to go 6-1 in a tough conference to make a bowl if they lose all five of those as they will be expected to do.

That seems hard to do with a brand new system again, and it might mean Fickell doesn’t keep his job.

I hope he does. I think he’s a good coach.

But it’d be hard to blame Wisconsin for wanting to make a change after multiple years of mediocrity.

Northwestern Wildcats

The schedule is hard, the defense last year was bad, and the offense is full of transfers.

What David Braun did his first year with Northwestern, considering the turmoil left in the wake of Pat Fitzgerald’s scandals, was very impressive.

But I’d be baffled if he pulled off another magic act this year.

Purdue Boilermakers

I don’t think Barry Odom is the answer long term at Purdue, but he can at least amend things quickly like he did at UNLV.

He feels like a very “high floor but low ceiling” type of coach.

But even still, this Purdue team is BAD this season.

Year 0’s don’t really exist anymore in the portal era, but Purdue may be a year 0.

Don’t look at the record. It won’t be pretty.

Just try to find some progress.