Big Ten football coach rankings has a new sheriff at the top
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A virtual unknown at this point two years ago, Indiana coach Curt Cignetti now stands alone.
In a Big Ten loaded with elite coaches, Cignetti’s work in leading the Hoosiers to an unbeaten national championship will go down as perhaps the greatest turnaround in Bowl Subdivision history.
That’s enough to put Cignetti ahead of Ohio State’s Ryan Day and Oregon’s Dan Lanning on our ranking of every Big Ten head coach:
1. Curt Cignetti, Indiana
Cignetti is 27-2 and 17-1 in the Big Ten in his two seasons in Bloomington. Needless to say, these marks stand in contrast to Indiana’s pre-2024 history. The Hoosiers may not repeat in 2026, but there’s no doubt Cignetti is the top dog in the conference and the closest thing college coaching in general has to a Nick Saban-like figure.
2. Ryan Day, Ohio State
Day won his national championship in 2024 and has another team set to contend this coming season. While he inherited one of the greatest situations of any first-year coach in Big Ten history, Day has turned Ohio State into an even more effective factory for NFL talent since replacing Urban Meyer in 2019.
3. Dan Lanning, Oregon
Fair or not, Lanning won’t get his national due until Oregon wins a national championship. The Ducks have been closer than ever since he took over in 2022, including a 26-3 mark in two seasons as members of the Big Ten. The 2024 team went unbeaten in winning the conference title and taking the top spot in the College Football Playoff rankings, while last year’s group advanced to the national semifinals before losing to the Hoosiers. Overall, Lanning is 48-6 with three top-seven finishes in the Coaches Poll.
4. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
The dean of Big Ten coaches has been at Iowa since Day was a sophomore quarterback for the University of New Hampshire. Since 1999, Ferentz has won 213 games, won two Big Ten crowns and reached another three conference title games. The Hawkeyes haven’t posted a losing season since 2012 and have been ranked in the final US LBM Coaches Poll in five of the past seven seasons.
5. Kyle Whittingham, Michigan
This will be one of the most interesting experiments of the 2026 season: Whittingham leaving Utah after decades with the program to take on the challenge of leading Michigan back to the top of the Big Ten. The Wolverines have chunks of ground to make up to catch Indiana, Ohio State and Oregon. But no Power Four program made a bigger coaching upgrade this offseason.
6. Lincoln Riley, Southern California
Riley might’ve been near the top of the list among all coaches nationally as recently as 2020, when he wrapped up his fourth playoff appearance in as many years at Oklahoma. Things have been much rockier at USC, which hit a high with an 11-win 2022 season in Riley’s debut but has since gone 24-15 with just one ranked finish. But things are starting to look up after USC went 7-2 in the Big Ten last year and then inked one of the nation’s top recruiting classes.
7. Bret Bielema, Illinois
Back-to-back Top 25 finishes have moved Illinois toward the league’s upper crust. This coming season will provide a good barometer of the Illini’s staying power. After an uneven run at Arkansas, it’s clear Bielema and his style are a much stronger fit for the Big Ten.
8. Matt Campbell, Penn State
After a decade at Iowa State, Campbell takes on a much tougher level of competition and distinctly higher expectations as James Franklin’s successor with the Nittany Lions. The track record is very strong: ISU went 72-55 under Campbell and had some of the best seasons in program history, including a school-record 11 wins in 2024.
9. Matt Rhule, Nebraska
The third-year bump didn’t quite arrive in 2025, though Rhule did get Nebraska into the postseason for the second year in a row. After pulling off remarkable rebuilding jobs at Temple and Baylor, whether he can turn a solid foundation into bigger things hinges on the Cornhuskers’ play on the offensive and defensive lines.
10. P.J. Fleck, Minnesota
The consistency is commendable: Fleck has reached the postseason in every non-COVID season except for his 2017 debut, when Minnesota finished one game shy of bowl eligibility. The Gophers haven’t gotten over the hump after an 11-win 2019, though, even if they’ve been able to carve out some distance from the Big Ten’s second tier.
11. Pat Fitzgerald, Michigan State
Back in the Big Ten four years after being canned by Northwestern, Fitzgerald must show an ability to navigate through a landscape that has changed dramatically since his final season with the Wildcats.
12. Jedd Fisch, Washington
Fisch flies under the radar among his Big Ten peers despite his turnaround at Arizona and last year’s nine-win finish with the Huskies. One thing Fisch has done very well at each of these stops is develop skill talent, with rising sophomore quarterback Demond Williams Jr. his latest pupil.
13. Luke Fickell, Wisconsin
Fickell’s tenure at Wisconsin has been a total disaster; few saw his bellyflop coming after a stunningly successful run at Cincinnati. Mistaken hires, misguided schematic changes and sloppily constructed rosters have contributed to one of the most disappointing tenures in recent Big Ten history.
14. Greg Schiano, Rutgers
Schiano’s days back at Rutgers may be numbered given how his second go-round has yet to yield anything close to a breakthrough. His overall track record is strong, though, even if almost entirely tilted toward the six winning seasons he posted with the Scarlet Knights from 2005-11.
15. Barry Odom, Purdue
Odom won two games in his first year at Purdue, to no surprise. The former Missouri and UNLV coach continues a steady building project that isn’t expected to pan out for at least another season.
16. Mike Locksley, Maryland
Locksley is once again on the hot seat after posting back-to-back four-win seasons with just two combined Big Ten wins. He has a young team this year, though, and could get Maryland back on track. The Terrapins won three bowl games in a row from 2021-23.
17. David Braun, Northwestern
The Wildcats have made the postseason in two of Braun’s three seasons and won both of their bowl trips. In 2023, Braun was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year after leading Northwestern to seven wins in the wake of Fitzgerald’s dismissal.
18. Bob Chesney, UCLA
Chesney is the league’s only head coach without any Power Four experience. In fact, his first FBS experience only came when he was hired by James Madison two years ago. But he took the Dukes to the playoff and has energized a UCLA program that has been a pushover since joining the Big Ten.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Big Ten football coach rankings has a new sheriff at the top
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