Big 10 Preview: Michigan goes for 3 in a row as conference waits one more year before LA expansion

Big 10 Media Days concludes on Thursday in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium, the same site as the Big Ten Championship Game.

Big 10 Fun Facts

This upcoming season will be the final season before the conference adds USC & UCLA in 2024. The conference last expanded a decade before in 2014 when they added Rutgers and Maryland to grow to 14 teams. For this year, the divisions and teams within the divisions will remain the same.

Michigan enters the season as the reigning back-to-back Big Ten Champions; having parlayed their wins in the Championship Game into College Football Playoff berths. The Wolverines have never won the conference outright in 3-cosnecutive seasons.

4 teams will enter with new Head Coaches including notably Wisconsin bringing in Luke Fickell from Cincinnati, Nebraska going to the NFL to get Matt Rhule, and Northwestern moving on from longtime bench boss Pat Fitzgerald after off the field issues arose2 this offseason.

The Road To Indy

The road to Indy in the East seems like it will run through Columbus or Ann Arbor as there is a 93.1% chance the Big Ten East division winner is either Ohio State or Michigan. In the West, Wisconsin is nearly a 50% favorite to win that side of the conference, but not as clear cut as the other division.

Since moving to East-West Divisions in 2014, the winner of the Big Ten Conference has exclusively come from the East Division. The game hasn’t been decided within a touchdown since 2017 when Ohio State defeated Wisconsin 27-21.

The Big Ten has sent a team to the College Football Playoff in 7 of the 9 seasons since its inception in 2014 with last season sending two in Michigan and Ohio State. The Allstate Playoff Predictor gives the Buckeyes the best chance of any team to make it this season with Michigan the 5th best.

One looming questions is will Craig Shemon’s Indiana Hoosiers be able to stay within 50 of the Ohio State Buckeyes?  Below is a brief preview of all the Big 10 teams.  More on Shemon and Sheppard today.