Big Ten 2024 sneak peek: Is this Ohio State’s year or
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Costs Connelly, ESPN Staff WriterJul 16, 2024, 07:15 AM ET Close Bill Connelly is a personnel author for ESPN.com.It’s top-heavy, it’s a geographical disaster and it’s basically the wealthiest conference in college sports. The new-look, 18-team Huge 10, spanning from Los Angeles and Seattle to New york city(ish) and Washington, D.C.(ish), will make its launching this fall, whether we’re ready for it or not. It boasts both of last year’s College Football Playoff Championship game participants (Michigan and Washington) and four of the top seven or so groups in the country. Depth is as tenuous as ever, but the huge games will be huge.That’s adequate small talk, though. We have actually got 18 groups to talk about. Let’s preview the very Big Ten!Every week through the summer, Costs Connelly will preview another FBS conference specifically for ESPN+, ultimately including all 134 FBS groups. The previews will consist of 2023 breakdowns, 2024 previews and team-by-team pills. Here are the MAC, Conference USA, AAC, MWC, Sun Belt, independents, ACC.Jump to a section:2024 projections|Best games Title contenders |
Who’s close?Hoping for 6-6
2023 wrap-up
GROUP REC. (CONF) SP+ RK OFF. SP+DEF. SP+ST SP+M ichigan( Big Ten )15-0 (10-0) 31.3 (1) 36.6 (12 ) 7.2 (1 ) 1.8 (7 ) Oregon (Pac-12 ) 12-2 (8-2) 26.2 (3 ) 45.0 (1 ) 18.2 (16 ) -0.5 (84 ) Ohio St. (Big Ten) 11-2 (8-1) 25.2 (4 ) 31.5 (34 ) 7.8 (2 ) 1.5 (20 ) Penn St. (Big 10) 10-3 (7-2) 23.5 (5 ) 32.7 (30 ) 10.5 (4 ) 1.3 (28 ) Washington (Pac-12) 14-1 (10-0) 16.4 (13 ) 40.3 (5 ) 24.7 (50 ) 0.8 (47 ) Maryland (Big 10) 8-5 (4-5) 11.0 (21 ) 28.3 (57 ) 17.6 (11 ) 0.4 (59 ) UCLA (Pac-12) 8-5 (4-5) 9.7 (27 ) 29.6 (47 ) 18.4 (17 ) -1.5 (108 ) Wisconsin (Big 10) 7-6 (5-4) 9.4 (29 ) 22.2 (86 ) 14.1 (7 ) 1.3 (29 ) USC (Pac-12) 8-5 (5-4) 9.4 (31 ) 43.3 (3 ) 32.8 (105 ) -1.2 (99 ) Iowa (Big Ten) 10-4 (7-3) 5.8 (47 ) 13.8 (129 ) 9.3 (3 ) 1.3 (30 ) Rutgers (Big 10) 7-6 (3-6) 3.5 (56 ) 21.0 (97 ) 18.7 (19 ) 1.2 (33 ) Minnesota (Big Ten) 6-7 (3-6) 0.4 (63 ) 20.0 (103 ) 21.1 (31 ) 1.5 (19 ) Nebraska (Big 10) 5-7 (3-6) 0.3 (66 ) 15.6 (123 ) 13.9 (6 ) -1.4 (105 ) Northwestern (Big 10) 8-5 (5-4) -1.3 (69 ) 18.5 (112 ) 18.5 (18 ) -1.3 (104 ) Illinois (Big 10) 5-7 (3-6) -2.5 (75 ) 21.6 (92 ) 24.1 (45 ) -0.1 (76 ) Michigan St. (Big Ten) 4-8 (2-7) -6.8 (88 ) 15.7 (122 ) 24.0 (44 ) 1.6 (16 ) Purdue (Big Ten) 4-8 (3-6) -7.3 (90 ) 21.8 (91 ) 27.1 (70 ) -2.0 (127 ) Indiana (Big 10) 3-9 (1-8) -7.4 (92 ) 19.6 (105 ) 27.2 (73 ) 0.3 (63 ) The leading 5 teams in this brand-new Big 10 went 6-6 against each other and 56-2 against everyone else in college football last season. Oregon lost just two devastatingly tight games to Washington; Washington was a close-game master but got thumped by Michigan in the national title game; Penn State lost only to Michigan and Ohio State, as is customary, until a bowl loss to another top-10ish team (Ole Miss) in the Peach Bowl; Ohio State lost a third straight to Michigan but ran the table till, with some crucial offending pieces missing out on, it lost to another top-10ish group (Missouri) in the Cotton Bowl.Iowa snared a Huge 10 national championship quote in the conference’s last year with divisions, but the Hawkeyes were the only group to stand apart in an excess of 5- to eight-win teams.In all, the Big
Ten boasted seven of the top 11 defenses in the nation and only 4 of the leading 29 offenses. However if you viewed Huge 10 football in 2015, you had probably currently sussed that a person out.