Welcome to the 2026 college football season.
The 2025 Indiana Hoosiers won the Big Ten and national championship and were the first team in the modern era to go 16-0. They have 10 starters back, the hottest coach in the game and a manageable schedule.
It’s Ohio State and Oregon generating most of the preseason buzz, though, with both perched 1-2 atop the preseason AP Top 25 poll and among eight ranked teams.
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Here’s what to know about each team in the Big Ten.
Illinois
Bret Bielema zeroed in on a couple of moments from the last two years when he could feel the change at Gies Memorial Stadium.
The Illinois coach of course felt the energy during the 2024 win against Michigan on a day the Illini celebrated the 100-year anniversary of the stadium. That 21-7 victory broke a 14-game losing streak to the Wolverines, and Bielema believed the crowd had an effect on his players and the game.
The buzz was present last season, too, when Illinois beat USC on a game-ending field goal, causing the students to stream onto the field.
The Illini built fan interest the last two seasons as they racked up 19 wins, a program record for a two-year stretch. That has carried over to this summer, when the athletic department announced it sold out season tickets for the public for the second year in a row and anticipates selling out student season tickets. Read more here.
Iowa
Kirk Ferentz heads into his 28th season as head coach at No. 22 Iowa and there’s no sign he’s letting up. Ferentz, who became the Big Ten’s winningest coach last season, will find out how good his team is in a hurry.
The Hawkeyes’ first three conference games are at Michigan, at home against Ohio State and at Washington. No. 22 Iowa has big holes to fill after seven players were selected in the NFL draft.
Ferentz certainly has enough talent on the roster to win eight or nine games and go to a 13th straight bowl (not counting the 2020 pandemic season). Read more here.
Indiana
Sixth-ranked Indiana will be hard-pressed to match last season’s magical national championship run. The Hoosiers must replace Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the NFL’s No. 1 overall draft pick and one of a school-record eight draftees in April.
The key will be whether a stronger supporting cast and a more run-heavy system helps Mendoza’s replacement, Josh Hoover, to cut down on the turnovers that vexed him at TCU. Indiana’s bid for second straight Big Ten and national titles begins Sept. 5 when it hosts North Texas. Read more here.
Maryland
Michael Locksley enters his eighth season as Maryland’s coach. He was able to rebuild the Terrapins into a solid bowl team when Taulia Tagovailoa was quarterback, but since then Maryland has had back-to-back losing seasons, including last year when the Terps won their first four games and then lost all the rest.
Quarterback Malik Washington was the starter last year and showed a lot of ability, becoming one of only two Big Ten true freshmen since 1996 to throw for more than 2,500 yards and run for more than 300. The Terps have won 18 consecutive nonconference games – and that’s not because they only schedule cupcakes – but the tendency to fade as the season progresses has been a big issue for this program. Read more here.
Michigan
No. 16 Michigan will likely fall short of a double-digit win season for the third straight year with six opponents ranked in the AP Top 25, including four in the top 10.
Coach Kyle Whittingham’s debut season for the Wolverines may hinge on how much Bryce Underwood improves in his second season but he should bring stability to a program that desperately needs it, coming off the firing and arrest of former coach Sherrone Moore and NCAA rules violations that put the maize and blue on probation.
Underwood stepped on campus as the No. 1 recruit in the country last year and didn’t live up to the hype, throwing just 11 touchdowns with nine interceptions in 13 games. Whittingham hired a quarterbacks coach, former NFL QB Koy Detmer, to give Underwood a resource he didn’t have as a freshman. Read more here.
Michigan State
Michigan State will surpass modest projections if they avoid a fifth straight losing season in Pat Fitzgerald’s first year as coach.
Fitzgerald and Michigan State seem to be a good fit and both have a lot to prove. Fitzgerald was fired four years ago by Northwestern due to a hazing scandal. He sued Northwestern and agreed to a settlement after the school said evidence did not establish any player reported hazing to Fitzgerald or that he condoned or directed hazing.
The Spartans are hoping Fitzgerald, their third coach since 2023, can turn around a program that has won five or fewer games in each of the past four seasons and is trying to shed fallout from the Mel Tucker firing. Read more here.
Minnesota
After a promising performance during his 2025 debut as the starting quarterback, Drake Lindsey has entered his third year with Minnesota as the 6-foot-5 centerpiece of an offense that has significantly evolved in recent seasons from a heavy and predictable reliance on run-pass options and inside zone runs.
Having become one of the most consistent programs in the middle of the Big Ten pack with a 40-25 record over the last five years, Gophers fans are eager for a breakthrough season. Read more here.
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Nebraska
Pressure is building on Nebraska coach Matt Rhule, who is 19-19 overall and 10-17 in Big Ten play over three seasons. A breakout will be difficult for a program that has lost 30 straight against Top 25 opponents. The schedule is brutal, with games against Indiana, Oregon and Ohio State and three November road trips.
QB Anthony Colandrea was 2025 Mountain West offensive player of the year but has never faced the gantlet of defenses he’ll go against in the Big Ten. Huskers need to find someone to replace the production of Big Ten rushing leader Emmett Johnson. Read more here.
Northwestern
David Braun is 19-19 over his first three seasons in Evanston, including 7-6 with a bowl win over Central Michigan in 2025. But he pointed to defending national champion Indiana’s turnaround over the last two seasons and believes there is “vertical alignment” with athletic department leadership and recent investment in the program to give the Wildcats hope.
Certainly there are reasons to be intrigued by Northwestern this season, including the offseason addition of offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and the opening of the new Ryan Field on Oct. 2. Read more here.
Ohio State
Ohio State is the preseason No. 1 for the first time since 2015 after their quest for a second straight national title was derailed by Miami in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal.
They return one of the more dynamic offenses in the nation with quarterback Julian Sayin, wide receiver Jeremiah Smith and running back Bo Jackson. If Ohio State does make it back to the CFP for the third straight year, it will be after navigating a challenging schedule that includes road games against No. 5 Texas, No. 6 Indiana, No. 16 Southern California and No. 22 Iowa. November includes home games against second-ranked Oregon and No. 14 Michigan.
With a tougher schedule and three players picked in the top 11 of the NFL draft, it would be crazy to expect the defense to repeat last year’s accomplishment of holding all but two of its regular season opponents under 11 points. Read more here.
Oregon
No. 2 Oregon has its highest preseason ranking ever, just behind top-ranked Ohio State, after reaching the College Football Playoff semifinals last season. The only losses for the Ducks were to the eventual national champion Indiana Hoosiers.
Oregon is again aiming to break through for that elusive title, as it has in all four of Dan Lanning’s seasons at the helm. One indication that this might be Oregon’s year is the return of quarterback Dante Moore, who announced in January that he was staying in Eugene rather than declaring for the NFL draft. Moore completed nearly 72% of his throws for 3,565 yards, with 30 touchdowns and 10 interceptions last season. Read more here.
Penn State
No. 18 Penn State is starting fresh with new coach Matt Campbell who’s spent the last few months reassembling a program that crumbled last season.
The former Iowa State coach retained beloved interim coach and longtime assistant Terry Smith, hired defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn from USC and relied on the transfer portal to find proven players, many of them coming with him from Ames. Fifty players also opted to stay, among them star linebacker Tony Rojas, eager to prove last year was an aberration. Read more here.
Purdue
Purdue fans have modest hopes for coach Barry Odom’s second season. The Boilermakers want to snap the school’s 18-game losing streak in Big Ten play and get the program back on track.
How tough has it been since coach Jeff Brohm left for his alma mater, Louisville, after winning the 2023 Big Ten West? Purdue is just 7-30 and has just three Big Ten wins, the last being a 35-31 victory over Indiana in November 2023. But even after being picked to finish 18th in the league for the third straight year, optimism reigns in West Lafayette. Read more here.
Rutgers
For the first time in three seasons at Rutgers, there is a quarterback battle in Piscataway.
AJ Surace or Dylan Lonergan are trying to win the job to run coach Greg Schiano’s ball-control offense. Surace knows the system but lacks game experience; he threw just nine passes last season as a backup. Lonergan is a transfer from Boston College who threw for over 2,000 yards.
Whoever gets the nod will benefit from the return of the Scarlet Knights’ leading rusher and wide receiver, Antwan Raymond and KJ Duff, respectively. Read more here.
UCLA
New UCLA coach Bob Chesney has stirred up anticipation and excitement around a program that has nosedived in recent years.
Coming from James Madison, he signed 62 new players, including 42 transfers, while his high-energy personality helped keep several Bruins in the fold. Chesney’s reputation is well-known, having posted a winning record in all but one of his 16 seasons. He’s gone out of his way to appeal to longtime Bruins fans and campus groups in an effort to bolster lagging attendance at the Rose Bowl.
QB Nico Iamaleava will be looking to keep his confidence going under a new coaching staff. Read more here.
USC
USC has elite talent, depth and experience all across its roster. The Trojans have a coaching staff with a long history of winning at other schools, and they just opened a lavish $225 million training complex on campus.
Lincoln Riley seems to have everything in place to get No. 14 USC
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to its first College Football Playoff — and everybody wearing cardinal and gold thinks it’s high time for the Trojans to take that final step after shoveling money into this program throughout the head coach’s half-decade in charge.USC kept one of the nation’s biggest groups of returning starters while adding several high-profile transfers and a strong high school recruiting class. Read more here.
Washington
No. 17 Washington is an unknown commodity going into Jedd Fisch’s third season at the helm, which is also the Huskies’ third season in the Big Ten.
Most of Washington’s toughest opponents – Iowa, Penn State and reigning national champion Indiana – will travel to Husky Stadium. How productive Demond Williams Jr. will be in his second season as starting quarterback after nearly leaving the program will be huge. In the Huskies’ four losses last season, he threw three touchdown passes against six interceptions.
Washington retained 60 players from last year’s roster, but leading rusher (Jonah Coleman) and leading receiver (Denzel Boston) are not among them. Read more here.
Wisconsin
Wisconsin believes its increased investment in roster construction can help the Badgers bounce back from back-to-back losing seasons.
Wisconsin opens against No. 4 Notre Dame, but the conference schedule doesn’t include any of the three Big Ten teams that made last year’s College Football Playoff (Indiana, Ohio State and Oregon). Read more here.