Welcome to Before The Snap, For The Win’s college football show where we’ll break down the sport’s trending storylines, examine each week’s biggest matchups and track the College Football Playoff and Heisman Trophy races.
It feels a little weird to have this conversation in the middle of October, but the Big Ten’s 2020 football season is officially here. The conference opens its eight-game schedule with No. 14 Wisconsin hosting Illinois on Friday at 8 p.m. ET (BTN).
But the conference’s biggest matchup of the week is No. 18 Michigan at No. 21 Minnesota with the Wolverines being a slight 3-point favorite as of Thursday, per BetMGM.
Going into the first Big Ten weekend, Ohio State and Wisconsin are among the top-4 teams with the best chances to make the College Football Playoff, according to ESPN’s Playoff Predictor. As of Thursday, the Buckeyes have a 57.2 percent chance to win the conference and a 69.6 percent chance to make the playoff, while the Badgers are at 31.7 percent and 40.0 percent, respectively.
Still, these teams have yet to play a game this season, so these numbers could easily change next week.
Here’s a look at the Big Ten teams’ chances of winning the conference, determined by ESPN’s Football Power Index:
Ohio State: 55.1 percent
Wisconsin: 31.7 percent
Penn State: 8.6 percent
Minnesota: 0.7 percent
Iowa: 0.6 percent
Northwestern: 0.5 percent
Indiana: 0.4 percent
Michigan: 0.2 percent
Nebraska: 0.1 percent
Purdue: 0.1 percent
Maryland: 0.0 percent
Michigan State: 0.0 percent
Rutgers: 0.0 percent
Illinois: 0.0 percent
