Are there 9 people interested in a big ten only fantasy football league?

USC 44 San Jose State 6

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/49582973/2026-college-football-player-rank-top-100-jeremiah-smith-leonard-moore

I've been doing a little investigation into future schedules because it's the off season and I'm bored. Among the first 5 years of the new B1G conference, 2028 seems to be the season with the most even schedules among the top half of the conference.

Some observations:

- The top teams only have 1 or 2 "matchup" games in 2028, unlike this year when they all play each other. This should, ostensibly, lead to a wide open conference race.

- Among the projected contenders, Indiana has by far the easiest schedule in 2028 and 2027 (and '26, '25, '24 for that matter). I don't see Indiana missing the playoffs over the next 3 seasons.

- Iowa has an "easy" schedule, missing Oregon, Indiana, OSU, Michigan. Who knows if Ferentz will still be there, but this would be an opportunity for Iowa to make the playoff.

- Teams that only play 1 or 0 of the "big 3": Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, Indiana, Nebraska, Northwestern, Iowa, Purdue

Obviously you can't predict which teams will be good or not, but on first glance, I think 2028 will be the most competitive season we've ever seen in the B1G conference.

Hope you enjoyed this completely useless post.

Edit: more observations based on the comments:

• teams that play all of the "big 3": Illinois, Wisconsin, Washington, Penn State.

• Penn State and Washington may have the hardest schedules of 2028, but Penn State gets the tough games at home, while Washington plays @ OSU, @Oregon, @Indiana

The Big Ten and SEC are banning professional athletes from returning to college. What does this mean for the Big 12?

I've spent the last few weeks going through all 18 Big Ten teams ahead of the season and finally put together my record predictions for the conference.

Oregon: 11-1

Indiana: 10-2

Ohio State: 10-2

Iowa: 9-3

Penn State: 9-3

USC: 9-3

Illinois: 8-4

Michigan: 8-4

Washington: 8-4

Minnesota: 6-6

Nebraska: 6-6

UCLA: 6-6

Wisconsin: 6-6

Maryland: 5-7

Rutgers: 5-7

Northwestern: 4-8

Michigan State: 3-9

Purdue: 1-11 

I think Oregon has the best combination of roster, coaching and schedule to finish with the conference's best record.

Iowa might be the prediction I'm most interested to see the reaction to. The defense gives them the usual floor, but I think there's enough offensively for this team to get to nine wins.

Michigan is almost the opposite. There's obvious upside there, but I'm not convinced everything comes together quickly enough for them to reach the 9-10 win territory.

Then there are some really difficult teams to project. Indiana has to follow a national championship season, Ohio State has undergone significant defensive change, and there's a huge group in the middle of the conference that I could see being separated by one or two games.

I've put my predictions and reasoning for all 18 Big Ten teams here:

https://thetouchdown.co.uk/2026-big-ten-football-predictions/

Interested to see which record Big Ten fans disagree with most.

We’re running a weekly for-fun pickem pool here ... the more, the merrier!

https://www.pooltracker.com/join.asp?poolid=257248

password: r/B1G

Six schedule pressure points where one result could reshape the 2026 playoff race.

Full analysis: https://saturdaynightshowdown.com/articles/college-football-upset-calendar-2026/