Ad Disclosure
If you like some serious variety in your bag of Halloween candy, then midseason in the Big Ten, circa 2025, should be right up your alley.
At this crazy point in time, the Big Ten is many things for many fans. The conference with teams all over the map is literally all over the map.
It’s crazy top-heavy, with the top 2 teams in the land and 3 of the top 6 at this very moment.
It’s got coaches at big-time programs who’ve already been fired and a few others who are seemingly hanging on.
It’s got a basketball blue blood trying to win a national title in football, a quarterback who transferred across the country trying like heck to get the last laugh and a slew of 2-loss teams who are desperate to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive.
Is that enough for you? Well, it’s still not even November quite yet and there are about 100 things to hold your attention in the Big Ten. We’re going to knock down that overwhelming number and run down the 10 tastiest things to watch in the Big Ten as we near the stretch run:
1. Can Ohio State pull off perfection and repeat?
Purely out of respect, the No. 1 team in the country needs to be No. 1 on this list. Not only is Ohio State undefeated and humming along at 7-0 with a potent offense and savage defense. The Buckeyes are doing it as the defending national champions, with the target squarely on their backs every single week.
Watching Ryan Day‘s machine operate right now is absolutely fascinating, in the best of ways, and it’ll only get more intriguing if that dominance persists right through the Michigan game. Don’t forget that Ohio State is doing all this with 2 new coordinators, and do you reckon that Matt Patricia has made Buckeyes fans forget about Jim Knowles yet?
2. How much longer will Luke Fickell be at Wisconsin?
Fickell seemed like a great hire at the time, didn’t he? He went 57-18 in 6 seasons at Cincinnati in his first true head coaching gig, and he arrived in Madison late in the 2022 season primed and ready to lift Wisconsin to new heights. Well, here we are 3 years later, and Luke Fickell is a head-scratching 15-18 for a fan base that likes to “Jump Around” but probably feels like jumping off a bridge right now.
Wisconsin is 0-4 in the Big Ten, scoring a combined 20 points in those 4 games, and somehow, some way has been shut out on its home field the past 2 games by Iowa and Ohio State. Zero points in 120 minutes of football at Camp Randall Stadium, and 0 chance that Fickell makes it to the end of the season, right? Well, athletic director Chris McIntosh recently came out in support of Fickell, so who knows, but the Fickell Watch will be a must-watch for the rest of 2025.
3. Does Indiana actually have the best QB in the country?
Yes, there is superb quarterback play going on at a lot of locales this fall, and a few of them play in the same conference as Indiana. But as of last Sunday morning, at the completion of Week 8, it was Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza who had the best odds to capture the Heisman Trophy. Mind you, Indiana is a basketball blue blood trying to win it all in football, and not surprisingly the program has never had a Heisman winner.
Well, Mendoza could be bringing a lot of firsts to Bloomington this fall after transferring from California at the end of last season. He has 1,755 yards passing this season, a 73.5 completion percentage, 21 touchdown passes and just 2 interceptions. Mendoza has also run for a couple of scores. He’s been everything and more in not letting Indiana suffer a drop-off after last year’s trip to the Playoff. IU has a great shot to go 12-0, and Mendoza has an even better chance to prove he’s the best QB of the elite bunch.
4. Where exactly will Penn State’s coaching search take us?
James Franklin is a distant memory at this point after winning a ton of games but not nearly enough big games. The rumor mill in State College is already spinning out of control, and it hasn’t even been 2 weeks since James Franklin was let go. But time flies in this new world of social media angst and general impatience, so expect just about every name in the book to be thrown against the wall until Penn State actually picks its next guy.
At this point, with the Nittany Lions careening off a cliff at 3-4 and winless in the Big Ten at 0-4, the rest of the games on the schedule will just be a sideshow. The real show will be the continuing coaching search to find Franklin’s successor. That’s a really bitter pill to swallow for passionate Penn State fans, but that’s the cruel new reality that has taken hold in Happy Valley. Stay tuned for those updates.
5. How will resurgent Nico Iamaleava do vs. the big boys?
Everybody was ready to bury Iamaleava just a few weeks ago after UCLA got off to an 0-4 start, and those feelings were right to have. This is a guy who left Tennessee high and dry during spring football and felt like he could do a whole lot better back home in southern California. Throw in the hot start by his replacement in Knoxville, Joey Aguilar, and you had a lot of people laughing Iamaleava’s way.
But wait just a minute. UCLA has answered with 3 straight wins, including the big one over Penn State when the Nittany Lions were still relevant. Iamaleava threw 2 touchdown passes and ran for 3 scores in that stunner over Penn State on national TV, playing big on the big stage.
Is he ready to settle in out in Pasadena? Let’s see how things go starting Saturday at No. 2 Indiana, as he opposes new Heisman favorite Fernando Mendoza. Three weeks later comes another arduous trip east to play at No. 1 Ohio State, and then a few weeks after that he’ll play his first rivalry game against USC, also on the road. Fans from Pasadena to Knoxville and in between should be watching closely.
6. Can any 2-loss team emerge as a Playoff contender?
Barring an unexpected collapse by any of the Big Ten’s Big 3 — Ohio State, Indiana and Oregon — the conference should at the very least have 3 teams in the College Football Playoff. As of right now though, there are a bevy of 2-loss Big Ten teams led by Illinois and Michigan who would love to crash the Playoff party in December.
Throw USC into the top of that mix of teams who would surely have to run the table just to have an outside shot at getting in.
7. How will USC respond to the gut punch at Notre Dame?
Speaking of USC, Lincoln Riley and the Trojans were denied that big breakthrough victory last Saturday night in South Bend, letting a 3rd-quarter lead slip away in a 34-24 loss. The Trojans were knocked out of the rankings, but were they knocked out of Playoff contention? Probably not, at least not yet.
They’re 5-2, but running the table would contain a statement victory at Oregon, and if other things with other contending teams break right, who knows? What we do know is it will be mighty interesting to see how Riley and his team handle the stretch run after such a demoralizing loss.
8. Can Michigan State stop the bleeding even a little?
The perfect opportunity for embattled Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith to stop that bleeding comes Saturday night in East Lansing when Michigan comes to town. It’s primetime, it’s NBC, and it’s the 2nd-year head coach’s huge chance to quiet the critics who believe he should be fired.
Michigan State is 0-4 in the Big Ten, losing all 4 games by double digits, and the Spartans and their coach need something to go right, right now. An upset of the hated in-state rival would do nicely.
9. Is Oregon really ready to go win a national title?
Sure, the Ducks are ranked 6th and sit at 6-1, but a closer look reveals that they came up small at home against Indiana and needed 2 overtimes to topple a Penn State team that has completely imploded. Suddenly, things don’t look so impressive in Eugene, and Oregon doesn’t have a ranked team left on its schedule.
Yes, Dante Moore is a dynamic quarterback. He’s got glossy passing stats, with 19 touchdowns and just 4 interceptions. But is Moore really ready to lead a Playoff run in December and January? The Oregon dynamic is a curious one, and it’s definitely one to keep an eye on the rest of the way.
10. Will Julian Sayin stay on unlikely path to a Heisman?
We started this list with Ohio State, so it’s only right that we end it with the Buckeyes’ breakout quarterback. Sayin’s first job is obviously to keep winning games, whatever his stats are. But there’s definitely a Heisman out there for him to capture, especially after he lit up Wisconsin in Week 8, and the remaining schedule lines up perfectly to do just that.
Sayin can pile up some serious numbers against Penn State, Purdue, UCLA and Rutgers, and if he can beat Michigan on the big stage in Ann Arbor and play well while doing it, then the Heisman could be his.