SBNation Big Ten Wonks Pick Season Records – Somebody’s Going to be WRONG

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A bunch of us SB Nation Big Ten wonks got together and picked what our record would be for the 2026 season. Obviously, as you can see, a bunch of people are going to be wrong. The wins are going to come from somewhere, and so are the losses.
It’s nice to see that everybody has optimism at the beginning of the season. (SBNation has no UCLA and USC web sites), and it looks like our Northwestern people didn’t respond.
School 2026 Record Big Ten Champ National Champ Ohio State 11-1 Ohio State Ohio State Oregon 11-1 Oregon Georgia Indiana 11-1 Indiana Oregon Iowa 9-3 Ohio State Ohio State Michigan 9-3 Oregon Notre Dame Washington 9-3 Ohio State Georgia Penn State 9-3 Oregon Ohio State Minnesota 8-4 Ohio State Notre Dame Illinios 7-5 Indiana Ohio State Nebraska 7-5 Ohio State Ohio State Maryland 6-6 Oregon Ohio State Michigan State 6-6 Ohio State Texas Rutgers 6-6 Ohio State Ohio State Wisconsin 6-6 Oregon Texas Purdue 3-9 IU Notre Dame (I’m in football hell.) Ohio State (7) Ohio State (7) Oregon (5) Notre Dame (3) Indiana (3) Texas (2) Georgia (2) Oregon (1)
My votes are in the Nebraska column. Yes, I am right now picking Nebraska to finish 7-5. That’s what we do.
I like the look of our team right now, the offensive line looks to be better, the quarterback isn’t as slow as me (foot speed and mental processing), and perhaps the defensive coordinator will know how to run a defense.
But UNTIL we can prove we can get past 7-5…. what’s the point?
There’s a fair amount of pressure to not be negative at the beginning of the season. I don’t see that pic as being negative or positive.
Put it this way.
You all have certain relatives in your family who know when the Thanksgiving dinner is, but they can’t help but show up three or four hours late. It’s what they do. It’s not a negative, it’s not a positive. It’s just who they are.
Until the day they start showing up on time. That’s what you have to expect for Thanksgiving dinner. If Matt Rule and his new set of coaches, no matter how good they play this year, can start winning games that they should or beating teams that maybe they should not, then we’re going to be stuck at 7-5.
I picked Ohio State to win the Big Ten and Ohio State to win the national championship because they have like three teams of starters that would start on any other team outside the Top Ten of the AP Poll. It’s only going to be Ryan Day’s game planning screw-up that costs them a title.
Could Oregon break through this year? This is the equivalent of your Thanksgiving dinner relatives start showing up on time.
Is Iowa really going to finish at 9-3? What about Michigan, Washington, and Penn State?
Somebody gets to lose.
So what do you think? 7 – 6? What’s the season prediction?
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