Ty's 2020 Big Ten Football Preview

The Big Ten starts, I believe, their fall football season tonight.

I am pretty conflicted about this. I haven't watched much college football, even less NFL, and with COVID cases surging in the Midwest right now, I don't think it is the safest thing to do. But they are barreling ahead and getting it started. They are doing an eight game abbreviated season, with the possibility of a ninth game. This affords them the chance to make the playoff, if they have little to no problems finishing the season. I think they will run into problems, every conference playing currently has had stops and cancellations and postponements, and the NFL has been even worse. But, I will watch, at the very least, Michigan. I am an addict, I love their football team and, while it is easy for me to skip a Clemson or Alabama game, I just can't do that with the Wolverines. And to be fully transparent, I will watch other Big Ten games. This is the conference I have grown up with, and I watch it more than any other. I will miss the freedom I have found myself having on Saturday's now, at least for the next eight Saturday's, but I know I will tune in when Michigan is on. That is who I am.

With all this being said, I am going to do a 2020 version of my preseason preview of the Big Ten. I will not go through each team, and give them sentences and where I think they will fall. I will give you all a general view of how I see the Big Ten season unfolding, and end it with some predictions, including the conference champ. Let's get to it. Right off the bat, I do think the Big Ten will run into issues with postponements. Some of the teams, if not all, will have some kind of outbreak, and they will have to shut it down for a week or two. We have seen it at small programs, and much bigger ones, namely Notre Dame and Florida. It is definitely going to happen in the Big Ten. That is how this has worked all college football season so far, and the Big Ten is not immune.

The university of Ohio State should roll. They have the easiest schedule in the conference. I'm not joking. They do not play anyone tough, at all. You can throw out Penn State or Michigan at me, and I'd counter with, PSU is missing their top running back and best defender, and Michigan has almost an entire new offense, and secondary. If the university of Ohio State doesn't go undefeated, it would be a major, major letdown from them. They have the best players in the league, and they were given as cupcake a schedule as a team can get in this weird season.

I think Michigan will be mediocre, but I do love that they are starting Joe Milton at QB. My dad has been high on him since day one, and I have become a fan over the past year. He is going to be good, but he will have some not so good moments. They also have an entire new receiving corps, save for Ronnie Bell. They also have four new offensive line starters. They also have an entire new secondary. The players are good, they just haven't played much, and Michigan has one of the harder schedules in the conference. I think, at best they are a 5-3 team, but they look more like 4-4 to me. I also think this is the time that Michigan fans should get really worried that Harbaugh might jump back to the NFL. I hope he doesn't, but you never really know what he is going to do. He is a great coach, he has made the Wolverines so much better than they were prior to him, and I'd hope he would stay because he is the king in Ann Arbor, but I just have this odd feeling he will seriously consider jumping.

Wisconsin and Penn State will be solid six or seven win teams, but they will not compete for the playoff. PSU doesn't have their top back, best defensive player, and they really kind of tumbled near the end of last season. I don't trust their pass game, and I think the odd season we have will hamper their offense. Wisconsin will plug in some other running back that will go for 1200 to 1500 yards, and their O line will be solid, but their passing game is super suspect, and I think they lost a good chunk of their defense.

Minnesota will be solid. They lost a ton, but they have their QB and one of their best receivers back. I am curious to see if last year was an anomaly, or a sign of things to come. There is always a team that explodes for one season, then crashes back to Earth. I think Minnesota is good enough to be an upper tier Big Ten team, but I want to see it first. They should have an explosive offense though.

Iowa has so many problems within the program that I don't see how that doesn't affect them on the field. Former players are calling for Kirk Ferentz to be fired. That has got to weigh on them. By the way, if all the stories coming out of Iowa are true, he has to be fired immediately. That is some heinous stuff.

Outside those teams, it is all kind of blended. Purdue was helped with Rondale Moore opting back in, but who else do they have? Northwestern has more stories about kids opting out than playing. What is going on in Lincoln? Is Scott Frost a good coach? Are they going to figure it out defensively? Who knows. Michigan State has a new coach and a whole new system, and they have problems within their program as well. Indiana will always be a tough out because that is the nature of their team. And the rest, Illinois, Maryland and Rutgers, they all have holes, but also some good guys and will play some fun games, but probably not win too many of them.

I think it goes without saying that I have the university of Ohio State winning the conference again, and they should do it going away. I also think Justin Fields will be the Big Ten player of the season. They should dominate. Outside of that, I am excited to see Joe Milton, Minnesota will be pretty good and PSU and Wisconsin will be better than average. Let's get to it, I guess. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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