Are you ready? Your Saturdays are about to be booked again. RSVP, “no” to that wedding, pray that your kid has the early tee ball game slot, and under no circumstances are you allowed to go pumpkin picking at noon. College football has arrived and your plans are set between now and January when a team, maybe yours, gets to raise the trophy. Will a powerhouse like Alabama or Ohio State raise the crown jewel this year? Maybe a team that’s been knocking on the door for years like Oregon will have its time to shine. Or it could be a Cinderella team like Indiana who takes it home. We are previewing every conference for you. Here’s our 2026 Big Ten football preview.
Last Year
Wow, wow, wow. Indiana. Who saw that one coming? A year ago, I said I was most excited to watch Oregon, Penn State, and Ohio State. I said I was anxious to see if Lincoln Riley would build success and I predicted that Penn State would win the conference. Boy was I wrong. Instead, it was Indiana. To be fair, who saw that coming? James Franklin got fired midway through the year because of how poorly Penn State played. The Hoosiers were undefeated and dominated their way to the College Football National Championship where they took down Miami and turned in one of the truly shocking performances that we’ve ever seen in a sports season. Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan, and USC rounded out the top five.
What to Watch
Can Indiana keep it up? That’s what we are all wondering. Fernando Mendoza and Omar Cooper Jr. are gone. They graduated a ton of talent to the NFL. But Curt Cignetti brought them all together in the first place, so I won’t be surprised if he keeps it up in 2026. I think expecting this team to repeat as champs and go undefeated for a second straight year isn’t realistic, but I sure am excited to see them try.
But what I really want to see is if Oregon and Dan Lanning can finally take the big leap forward? They play consistently well in the regular season. They look absolutely dominant and then play like a shadow of themselves in the CFP. They made a deep run a year ago to the semis, but Indiana showed them the business with a 56-23 victory over the Ducks. Are they going to step up and be a championship contender or a second fiddle in the conference?
Heisman Candidate
Jeremiah Smith is one of my favorite college wide receivers to watch. This should be his final collegiate season, and he is chasing down Ohio State records after just two years. He had over 1,200 yards last season and Cignetti compared him to Julio Jones.
After Smith, I am going with Dante Moore from Oregon. He made the shocking decision to stay at Oregon and forgo the NFL Draft where he would have likely been a top five pick and the second quarterback taken after Mendoza. He should build a nice campaign for himself.
Prediction
Ohio State is my pick. No shade to Indiana but when a team is consistently good for as long as the Buckeyes have been and the roster continues to turn over with a never-ending pipeline of talent, how can you pick against them?