2026 Big Ten college football preview, predictions, top transfers - ESPN

Congratulations in advance to Oregon. If the Big Ten is to continue its recent streak of a different national champion for each season — Michigan in 2023, Ohio State in 2024, Indiana in 2025 — Dan Lanning's Ducks are the most likely beneficiary.

This is certainly a heck of a streak, perpetrated by three different coaches and capping three very different cycles. Michigan's title was the culmination of a nine-year quest and a three-year cycle of increasing brilliance. Ohio State's was the once-per-decade aligning of the stars for college football's consistently elite program. Indiana's was the cap of a two-year bolt from the blue, maybe the most unexpected rise the sport has ever seen.

Maybe it's indeed Oregon's turn. The Ducks' quest for the promised land has lasted a couple of decades and has been piqued by their three-year unbeaten streak against anyone that didn't eventually reach the national title game. USC also has ramped up its recruiting in its chase for old glory, and virtually everyone else in the conference has to be telling themselves, «Well, if they can do it, why can't we?» in regard to the Hoosiers' surge.

Maybe 2026 is the year where we circle back to old names. Ohio State is starting the season first nationally in SP+, after all. Or maybe we're just living in Indiana's world now, and the Hoosiers are here to claim all the titles for the foreseeable future. Regardless, the Big Ten figures to be its typical, top-heavy, fascinating self in 2026. Let's preview it.

Even by the Big Ten's standards, 2025 was a particularly top-heavy season. The conference had three teams better than anyone in the SEC, and seven teams worse than anyone in the SEC. Indiana won it all, and Ohio State and Oregon went 25-1 against