in NCAA F Articles

It doesn’t get any bigger than the Big Ten.

Sure, the USC Trojans and the Texas Longhorns are both back in contention this year. But they’ve been surpassed by the Ohio State Buckeyes, the No. 1 team in the preseason college football rankings. And there are plenty of other strong teams in the most storied conference in all of college sports.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

The Buckeyes are the +120 favorites to win the Big Ten; not only that, you can get them at +550 to win the Fiesta Bowl. Only wildly popular Notre Dame (+500) is getting shorter odds. Coach Jim Tressel goes into this campaign with a 50-13 record in five seasons at the helm. This year’s squad may be the best he’s ever assembled. The combination of QB Troy Smith and WR Ted Ginn Jr. is simply awesome. There is concern about the defense after all those starters left for the pros, but their replacements may prove to be even better. How soon is the question. Playing Texas on the road in Week 2 should provide the answer.

The Hawkeyes represent OSU’s other tough road date on Sept. 30. At +250 to win the Big Ten, Iowa is poised to take a giant step from last year’s relatively disappointing 7-5 season. The coaches have Iowa pegged at No. 16 in the preseason polls. That might be a touch optimistic. The Hawkeyes are extremely talented on both sides of the ball, but they have experience questions that are more glaring than OSU’s, especially at wide receiver. However, Iowa’s soft schedule – the only tough road game is Oct. 21 at Michigan – could be enough to steal the Big Ten from the Buckeyes.

This is arguably the second-best team in the conference (the coaches believe so, ranking them two spots ahead of the Hawkeyes at No. 14), but the Wolverines are third on the odds list at +300. Michigan duplicated Iowa’s unsatisfactory seven wins; the feeling in Ann Arbor, though, is one of grim determination. Seven wins was considered a disaster in 2005 – and things aren’t going to be easy this year, either, with road games at Notre Dame, Penn State and Ohio State. However, the Maize and Blue have been resilient in years past, and the 2006 version should delight handicappers after an intensive offseason conditioning program. The talented-yet-overvalued Fighting Irish had better watch out in Week 3.

Last year was sweet redemption for coach Joe Paterno, who most pundits were ready to put out to pasture. Not so fast. JoePa put faith in his young players, and they repaid him by winning the Big Ten and beating Florida State at the Orange Bowl. But PSU is due to come back down to earth a little this year. At +450 to retain the conference crown, the Nittany Lions may be No. 19 in the preseason polls, but they’re also returning just one starter to the offensive line. The domino effect from that weakness should hamstring the offense just enough to keep Penn State from picking up more than nine wins. If they do hit nine, though, the OVER will cash in at a tasty +185 on the regular season total of 8.5 victories.