After many months of debate, discourse and deliberation, the brand new Big Ten conference is just days away from its debut on the gridiron. The conference is coming off a high after Michigan won the 2023 College Football Playoff Championship. It was the first time a team from the Big Ten won a college football championship in nearly a decade. However, the conference is looking quite different from last season.
With four new West Coast entrants — Oregon, Washington, UCLA and USC — the Big Ten will surely be in for a shakeup. In the preseason Associated Press top 25 poll, there are six Big Ten teams ranked, four of them in the top 10. It’s hard to know exactly how all these teams will play out throughout the course of the grueling season. But these are the senior sports staff’s pick on who will take home the Big Ten crown, and who will be the biggest loser of the bunch.
Leila MacKenzie — Sports Editor
BIG Winner: Iowa
As aforementioned, the Big Ten is amid an identity crisis. With four West Coasters in the mix, many of these teams will be tempted to drop the gritty Midwestern guise to match the glitzy offense of their freshest foes, but not Iowa. If I know one thing about football it’s that the Hawkeyes stay true to their identity: Punt!
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The 2023 Big Ten West Champion forced 94 total punts last season and its opponents averaged a mere 12.17 points per game in the regular season. Sure, Iowa punted 94 times itself and had its fair share of zero-digit outings, but the Hawkeyes know who they are, they punt the ball and keep the scoreboards clean. And it works! Iowa is coming off 10 wins and hasn’t had a losing season since 2012 — this is the consistency necessary to survive a restructuring conference.
Given Defensive Coordinator Phil Parker’s genius, the Hawkeyes need minimal offensive assistance to contend. Last season, Iowa averaged an abysmal 15.43 points per game, which is as bad as it gets. But emerging from the offseason, the Hawkeyes offense looks a bit different.
Graduate quarterback Cade McNamara is returning from a torn ACL and should possess the maturity to lift Iowa out of its scoring pit. McNamara helped arsenal the Wolverines for three seasons under Jim Harbaugh, where he racked up over 3,000 passing yards and 21 touchdowns to five interceptions. On the sidelines, Tim Lester, formerly an analyst for the Green Bay Packers and Head Coach at Western Michigan, has taken over as offensive coordinator.
Most importantly, the Hawkeyes have added freshman punter Rhys Dakin to fill the big boots of now-Chicago Bears punter Troy Taylor. With Dakin and a firm identity in place, Iowa is ready to punt itself to the promised land (or at least past midfield).
BIG Loser: Penn State
Penn State is just too ugly.
That’s right, if the Nittany Lions want to experience any post-season success, it’s time they drop the bland helmets, White Out and blind worship. Even Keegan-Michael Key can’t get me to see the beauty in (not so) Happy Valley.
On paper, Penn State is looking solid. It is No. 8 in the AP preseason rankings, sports the No. 15 recruiting class and is coming off two double-digit win seasons.
Regardless, the Nittany Lions are due for disappointment. Since entering the Big Ten in 1993, they have not recorded three consecutive double-digit win seasons and with No. 2 Ohio State, No. 23 USC, UCLA and Washington on the docket, they have a rough schedule ahead.
Plus, Drew Allar is overrated. The junior quarterback started all 13 games last fall and filled the statsheet with 2,631 passing yards, 25 touchdowns and two interceptions. But trust, Allar isn’t perfect. He’s still building his confidence and his interceptions come in pivotal moments. When Allar is thrown into a slugfest with a former Pac-12 team, he will struggle to make clutch decisions down the stretch.
Stefano Fendrich — Managing Editor
BIG Winner: Oregon
After ending their season in heartbreaking fashion in the Pac-12 Conference Championship, Head Coach Dan Lanning and the Ducks are out to finish what they started. Oregon was one of the best teams in the entire country last season boasting 12 wins in a strong Pac-12 conference. Their starboy quarterback Bo Nix left for the NFL, but they went hunting in the transfer portal and found a worthy replacement: Senior quarterback Dillon Gabriel.
As part of Oklahoma last season Gabriel led the Big 12 in passing yards with 3,660 and touchdowns with 30. He did it with peak efficiency throwing just six interceptions while completing nearly 70% of his passes. Gabriel is getting paired up with senior wide receiver Tez Johnson, a monster for the Ducks a year ago. Johnson set an Oregon single-season record with 86 catches and had 1,182 receiving yards along with 10 touchdowns. Gabriel and Johnson in a Lanning offense is going to be scary for opposing Big Ten defenses.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see these new teams in the Big Ten falter a little bit; it’s a new conference with a completely different playing style than the Pac-12. But Lanning gives me confidence in this No. 3 ranked Oregon team. He’s a gutsy coach whose offensive pedigree speaks for itself. He’s shown he’s a strong leader and will help get this Oregon team over the hump. In its inaugural season in the Big Ten, Oregon will flex its muscles and get its first Big Ten championship.
BIG Loser: Wisconsin
At my core, I’m a hater without reason. I don’t have that many valid reasons for hating Wisconsin as a football team, I just do. Maybe it’s that I’m used to the Badgers masquerading around the Big Ten as if they’re of the same caliber as Ohio State, Michigan or even Penn State. They always get some random, mediocre quarterback from the transfer portal and pretend like they deserve to be getting any AP top 25 votes, but they don’t.
In three of the last four seasons, Wisconsin has finished exactly third in the Big Ten West, finishing fifth in 2022. The Badgers are always just a little bit above mid but pretend like they’re one of the best programs of the Big Ten. But this season, I think — I hope, even — they implode. Their quarterback this year, redshirt senior Tyler Van Dyke, is coming off a rather awful season. In 11 games Van Dyke threw 12 interceptions to just 19 touchdowns; he won’t be able to save their season.
Will Wisconsin be the worst team in the Big Ten? Most likely not. Lucky for the Badgers they’re too high-profile of a school to not have enough talent to at least compete with the real blue bloods of the conference. Maybe they’ll get a few wins, but they will be hanging around near the depths of the conference standings; where they belong.
Henry Mode — Sports Editor
BIG Winner: Ohio State
With the departures of Head Coach Jim Harbaugh, quarterback JJ McCarthy, and several other key contributors from defending national champion Michigan, it would seem the Big Ten is wide open headed into the 2024 campaign. However, even with the addition of the West Coast teams, one squad remains a level above the rest: Ryan Day’s Buckeyes.
Despite starting a quarterback in Kyle McCord who had no business leading a program of that caliber, Ohio State went 8-1 in Big Ten play in 2023, only losing to undefeated Michigan. Enter senior Will Howard, who will take the reins for the Buckeyes after a storied four-year career at Kansas State where he set a school record with 48 touchdown passes and led the Wildcats to a Big 12 Championship in 2022. Howard could not be entering a better situation in Columbus, as he joins an offense that led the Big Ten in total yards per game in 2023 and added even more talent over the offseason.
It is not often that a team has a receiver picked in the top five in the NFL draft and gets more dangerous on offense, but I think the Buckeyes accomplished just that this summer. They recovered from the loss of superstar wideout Marvin Harrison Jr. by signing Jeremiah Smith, a 6 foot 3 inch tall, 214 pound receiver who was the top prospect of the 2024 class at any position, per 247 Sports. Smith will join a wide receiver room led by senior Emeka Ebuka, who despite living largely in Harrison Jr.’s shadow, had 1,039 yards and nine touchdowns in 2022 before an injury-plagued 2023 season.
On top of that, the Buckeyes brought in junior running back Quinshon Judkins through the transfer portal, who racked up 2,779 scrimmage yards and 33 touchdowns over the last two years at Ole Miss. Judkins will form a deadly running back duo with senior TreyVeyon Henderson, who had 1,083 scrimmage yards and 11 rushing touchdowns last season. All this to say, the Buckeyes have an embarrassment of riches on offense, and there are no teams in the Big Ten equipped to stop them.
Not to mention, Ohio State is not just ready to roll on the offensive side of the ball. Day took the Big Ten’s number one passing defense from 2023 and added sophomore safety Caleb Downs from Alabama, the top-ranked player in the transfer portal per 247 Sports. Downs, who won SEC Freshman of the Year in 2023 and was named First-Team All-SEC, could very well be the final piece of the puzzle for the Buckeyes to build a championship caliber defense.
Others may try to sell you a Cinderella story, but the truth is simple: Ohio State is too good, too deep and too well-coached. The Buckeyes won’t drop a game in conference play and will cruise to a 40th Big Ten Championship.
BIG Loser: USC
This pick is unlikely to make me the most popular writer on campus, but it is a hard truth that Trojan fans are better off swallowing now. I cannot think of a worse time for USC to have made the transition to the Big Ten. Coming off an immensely disappointing 8-5 season, the Trojans have swapped out Heisman winning quarterback Caleb Williams for redshirt junior signal-caller Miller Moss, who has attempted just 92 passes in his three seasons of college football.
It is difficult to quantify just how big of a drop off it is from Williams to Moss, but the reality is, even had the Chicago Bears’ new franchise quarterback opted to stay in SoCal for another year, the Trojans would still be in deep trouble. After a season with an underperforming offense and continuously horrendous defense, Head Coach Lincoln Riley mustered up a pretty mediocre recruiting class and failed to land any major impact players in the transfer portal.
In 2023, the Trojans were able to scrape togethers wins despite bad performances against mediocre teams like Cal and Arizona State, but that just will not be a possibility in their new conference. The Big Ten is grueling and deep, and a roster in rebuild mode faced with a gauntlet schedule could spell disaster for Riley and the coaching staff.
USC already has the makings of an improved recruiting class in 2025, and there is no denying the program has the foundation to compete long-term in the Big Ten. However, the timing of the move has not worked out well for the Trojans, and it is likely that they will be the big losers of the inaugural season in the Big Ten for the West Coast teams.
