Michigan has the most experienced players returning and has a somewhat favorable schedule up until November 20th.

Ohio State will have a lot of young but talented players. They also host Michigan at the 'shoe, but have to go at Purdue and at Iowa.

Iowa will have a veteran defense, but the schedule looks pretty toguh with road trips to Ann Arbor, Minneapolism and Happy Valley.

All 3 of them will be starting new quarterbacks hat could struggle so could somebody else suprise the rest of the conference?

Most preseason magazines are taking Michigan to win it with Ohio State and Iowa as #2 and #3. I think the Buckeyes will be able to survive the Big 10 schedule with at most 1 or 2 losses and then beat Michigan in Columbus to go to the Rose bowl.

As always, the game going into The Horseshoe will probably decide it. I say both go in with a loss, and the Buckeyes win at home. Michigan will lose to Iowa at home in their first Big Ten game because of inexperience. OSU will be undefeated going into Purdue and will overlook the Boilermakers.

The sleeper is Penn State this year.

I'm going to say Wisconsin. They will have a good defense and running game. It all depends on how their new QB does.

The Big Ten is still by far the deepest conference in football this year, despite the ACC's additions.

I think the Michigan game will be very tough for Iowa to win. It will certainly a big test on the road for Drew Tate.

My take on how things shake out:

Michigan
Iowa
Ohio State
Purdue
Penn State
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Michigan State
Northwestern
Illinois
Indiana

It is really tough to tell how it will shake out but I'm extremely pumped for the season!!

Good Luck to all teams!

HAWKULES Wrote:I think the Michigan game will be very tough for Iowa to win. It will certainly a big test on the road for Drew Tate.

My take on how things shake out:

Michigan
Iowa
Ohio State
Purdue
Penn State
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Michigan State
Northwestern
Illinois
Indiana

It is really tough to tell how it will shake out but I'm extremely pumped for the season!!

Good Luck to all teams!

Thanks for the love! Seems like everyone else is predicting Penn State will finish 7th or 8th.

Here are my predictions:

Ohio State
Michigan
Iowa
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Penn State
Purdue
Michigan State
Northwestern
Illinois
Indiana

Complete predictions:

1. Wisconsin -Lines are going to be awesome with Raola, Buening, and Clinkscale on the OL and Hawthore and Jefferson, and now Erasmus James is back from injury. Plus they have AD and a good secondary.
2. Penn State -maybe I'm biased but I really think that we have enough talent to contend. We don't play Michigan, and our lines will be good IMO with all of our DL starters back and four returning starters on the OL. Plus we have a returning 4-year starter at QB so that should help in pressure situations, our secondary has 3 starters returning. We have issues at WR and LB because we're replacing seniors there but there should be addition by subtraction at these positions. Only losses will come on the road at Wisconsin and at OSU.
3. Michigan -Good secondary, WR's, and linebackers but somewhat young on the DL and OL as well as at QB and TB. If their DL lives up to its potential they could win the conference.
4. OSU -They have to break in some young OL and a QB and almost their entire DL. They have a lot of talent for replacements but it's still hard when you lose all of that experience on the DL. With all of the good OL's in the conference (e.g., Wiscy, Minnesota, Northwestern) they might have more difficulty stopping the run.
5. Minnesota-Offense will be terrific if their new QB doesn't make too many mistakes. Pass defense may struggle if two new safeties don't adapt.
6. Northwestern-I'm going to part with conventional wisdom and predict a good season for Northwestern. They have almost everyone back and their lines should be pretty good. Loren Howard was 2nd team all big ten at DE and Strief was an all conference OT as well. Noah Herron is an adequate replacement for Jason Wright so they should have a pretty good running.
7. Iowa-Lost too many good players-Gallery, Sanders, Clauss, Hodges, and Russell. They also have a new, young QB. Defense may be good but they may have trouble stopping the run because they are thin on the DL and it's unclear how good the replacements for Jared Clauss and Howard Hodges will be.
8. Purdue-Should have a very good offense but they also lost a good OT (Butler) and all conference center Nick Hardwick. They produced a lot at those positions so it should be interesting to see how the OL opens holes and protects Orton. Defense will struggle a lot with all of those new starters.
9. MSU-lost 3 OL, QB, Taplin graduated and Mathias Askew left early for the NFL, I believe. They may thus struggle in running the ball and stopping the run.
10. Indiana-They will have a decent running game with their TB Ellis and they have almost everyone back on defense. How Lovecchio does throwing the ball will go a long way toward determining how successful they are this season.
11. Illinois-If Beutjer lights it up this year they could do better but they don't seem to have the depth and experience necessary to be successful on defense and in running the ball. Babcock is back on the OL but the other OL is a question mark.

I may be a homer but i think iowa is. This is the fastest iowa ever, and all we need to do is stay healthy.

Iowa (7-1)
Michigan(6-2)
Ohio State(6-2)
Purdue(6-2)
Wisconsin(5-3)
Minnesota(5-3)
Penn. St(4-4)
Mich St(2-6)
Nw(2-6)
Illinois(1-7)
Indiana(0-8)

Alot of good teams though in the Big Ten