3 takeaways from 2026 Big Ten Football preseason poll
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The Big Ten’s preseason poll for the 2026 season was released on Monday morning, coinciding with the conference’s media days event going on this week in Chicago.
Here is the poll in its entirety:
Here are three takeaways.
Michigan a preseason underdog
Kyle Whittingham and the Wolverines were predicted by the media to finish fifth in the conference this season, behind Ohio State, Oregon, Indiana and USC.
Honestly, I’m a tad surprised to see Michigan that high considering all the unknowns for the Wolverines heading into the season. You never know how it’s going to go with a first-year head coach, two brand new coordinators and several new players coming in from the transfer portal.
On top of that, Michigan has one of the toughest schedules in the country, let alone the Big Ten. The Wolverines play four of the other five top-six preseason teams in the conference, with the top two of Ohio State and Oregon being on the road in November. I’m not expecting a top-five finish for Michigan this year, but I would love to be wrong.
The top 3 are no surprise, but the order is
It was fully expected that Ohio State, Oregon and Indiana would be the projected top three teams in the conference heading into the season. All three teams have championship-level players and coaches and have a legitimate chance at making a College Football Playoff run in 2026.
But I don’t necessarily agree with the order in which those three teams are slotted in. If I were given a vote, I would have put Indiana at No. 1, followed by Oregon and Ohio State. The reigning national champs have been overlooked the first couple years of Curt Cignetti’s tenure in Bloomington, and that includes this offseason coming off an undefeated 2025 season. I have some doubts about the Hoosiers heading into the year as well, but they did manage to reload via the transfer portal and deserve a little more respect after last season.
The Ducks and Buckeyes are close for me at No. 2 and No. 3, but I’ll roll with Oregon being slightly better than Ohio State entering 2026. I like Dan Lanning more as a coach than Ryan Day, and I would roll with Dante Moore over Julian Sayin. Ohio State also has a much more daunting schedule this year than Oregon does, so I anticipate the Ducks finishing with a better regular season record than the Buckeyes.
1 lowly regarded team that could surprise this year
One team is a bit lower than they should be, in my opinion — the UCLA Bruins.
Bob Chesney was hired to take over the program this offseason after a couple successful seasons as the head coach at James Madison. He brought 42 guys in from the transfer portal and inherits an experienced quarterback in Nico Iamaleava. UCLA is also one of the oldest teams on average in the conference heading into the season, something that helped Indiana get to the mountaintop last year. By no means do I expect UCLA to do what the Hoosiers did last year, but being ranked No. 13 in the preseason is a little too low for me.
The Bruins may have finished 13th in the Big Ten last year, but I think they will improve and finish somewhere in the middle of the pack this season.
What are your takeaways from the preseason poll? Let us know down in the comments below!
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