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The Big Ten has been a bag of big surprises in 2026, because who really saw UCLA being 7-0 and in the top 10 as Halloween approaches while Oregon toils in irrelevance with 3 losses?
Speaking of Halloween and bags, while the sweet treats are handed out across America on the final day of October, a Big Ten college football Saturday will be on full blast, as fans unwrap the latest chapter of an unpredictable season within the conference.
What does this Halloween football Saturday, better known as Week 9, have to offer? Well, plenty, in all 3 main kickoff windows, as it turns out, as some of the Big Ten’s most illustrious programs and prominent coaches fill the spotlight from noon ET through primetime.
Halloween treats? The Big Ten will bring those in abundance on Saturday before the November stretch drive, and here are 3 of those big football treats that will come calling along with all those trick-or-treaters:
1. Ohio State and USC in primetime with so much at stake
This one is like a bottomless bag of Halloween candy. It’s the gift, or the game, that keeps on giving, a matchup made for primetime at the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Yes, it’ll be a 4:30 p.m. kickoff Pacific time, but back East it’ll be 7:30 and as those knocks on the door keep coming for that candy, these 2 brand-name college football blue bloods will clash at the Coliseum with tons hanging in the balance.
If this isn’t one of the highest-rated regular-season games of the 2026 season, then it would truly be a shock. Perhaps the only thing that will keep some fans away from the TV set and tuned into NBC will be the unfortunate but understandable conflict of having to take their children trick-or-treating. And perhaps those fans can keep a close eye on their phones to keep tabs on the game, with the 2nd-ranked Buckeyes and now unranked Trojans both desperate to avoid a potential College Football Playoff-crushing loss.
For USC, Halloween night 2026 could be a potential program shifter, in both directions. A win means beating arguably the best team in the country on your home field, on national TV, while avoiding a third loss that would definitely end any remote Playoff hopes and perhaps signal the end of the failed Lincoln Riley era.
No pressure, right Trojans?
With Riley already sitting squarely on the hot seat, with the burners turned up on high after last week’s primetime dud at Wisconsin, it would be hard to imagine Riley surviving much longer if USC can’t keep up with an Ohio State team that is ultra-talented but is also missing star quarterback Julian Sayin. The Trojans’ season is most definitely on the line, and this is as close to a 1-game, make-or-break scenario that a head coach could possibly encounter, because a win changes the whole Riley narrative while a loss changes nothing.
Ohio State’s situation is only a little less scary on Halloween night. No, Ryan Day‘s job isn’t more or less on the line, like Riley’s. But, yes, the Buckeyes do have a loss despite that No. 2 ranking, even if it seems like a long time ago. That Week 2 meltdown at Texas still counts a lot, and another road loss in primetime would suddenly put Ohio State’s Playoff hopes in peril.
Throw in the uncertainty of the Buckeyes’ QB situation, with Day staying coy about whether it’ll be true freshman Luke Fahey or unproven sophomore Tavien St. Clair behind center. No matter who gets the nod, it’ll be a challenging set of circumstances trying to fill Sayin’s shoes, trying to take down a desperate USC team on its home field and trying to keep Ohio State from sliding off track in pursuit of a Playoff berth.
No pressure, right Buckeyes?
It’ll be a super stressful stage in SoCal and the ultimate treat for fans, all at the same time.
2. Charismatic coaches PJ Fleck and Curt Cignetti face off
When Minnesota ventures to Bloomington on Halloween for a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff, one really good Big Ten team and one pretty good Big Ten team will be featured on the CBS stage. But as much as Saturday’s showdown will be about the defending national champions and a 5-2 Golden Gophers team that shook off the Purdue loss and knocked off Iowa last week, it will be about 2 massively entertaining head coaches.
Cignetti doesn’t just win and win big. He coaches boldly and speaks boldly. He’ll beat your team and entertain while he’s doing it. While sugar highs will be raging all over America on Halloween, Indiana has been on a 3-year sugar high for Curt Cignetti, who’s gone from unknown curiosity to arguably the best coach in college football.
Those CBS cameras will be all over Cignetti as he roams the home sidelines, but he won’t be the only really cool Big Ten head coach on display. Across the field will be the equally fiery and outspoken PJ Fleck, who has his team on the cusp of real relevance in 2026 and who lives for opportunities like Saturday’s.
Fleck has been around for a while now at Minnesota, almost a full decade in fact. And he’s stuck around this long because he wins games, entering Saturday with a 71-46 record since taking over in 2017. Watching these Golden Gophers try to break through with a shocking win at Indiana will be good theatre, and watching the incredibly entertaining Fleck try to lead that upset will be must-watch TV.
The Fleck-Cignetti sideline stare down will be heaven on Halloween. And the actual game could be pretty good, too.
3. Wisconsin playing as a ranked team for first time since 2023
Fire Fickell?
How about considering Luke Fickell for Big Ten Coach of the Year, at least right now as Halloween hits and the stretch drive awaits. Fickell started the 2026 season on the hottest of hot seats but now has Wisconsin ranked and raring to go after that Week 8 home takedown of USC.
The suddenly relevant Badgers are 5-2, 3-1 in the Big Ten and have a number next to their name for the first time since 2023. That was the first full year of Fickell’s so-far really disappointing tenure in Madison, and even that season ended with a mediocre 7-6 record. That was Fickell’s only winning campaign at Wisconsin — so far, with this season potentially changing the whole Fickell narrative and saving his job at the same time.
Now comes Week 9 and Saturday’s trip to Iowa, where the FOX Big Noon stage will be waiting for Wisconsin and Fickell. Iowa isn’t ranked, but the Hawkeyes just were before getting beat at Minnesota, and the Badgers are a slight underdog in Iowa City as they and as Fickell try to continue to ascend up the Big Ten ladder.
Watching Wisconsin play as a ranked team was once old hat for Badgers fans. Not anymore. And that’s what will make this Halloween so intriguing and such a treat for the good folks in Madison and all over Wisconsin.
Can No. 25 Wisconsin prevail on the road and keep that number next to its name? Fickell’s Badgers are finally knocking on the door to relevance again, on the same day as those trick-or-treaters will come knocking.