Big Ten season preview: September 26 is first major Shakeup Saturday

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USC football will slowly ease its way into the 2026 season. The Trojans start their season with three games against smaller (non-power-conference) schools followed by Rutgers. In their fifth game, however, the Trojans will play the most important game of their season against Oregon. The Big Ten season includes a few notable games in the early weeks of the season, such as Wisconsin-Notre Dame and Ohio State-Texas, but the conference race begins in earnest on September 26, the same day USC plays Oregon.

While the Trojans and their fans will be focused on the main event against the Ducks on that day, two other Big Ten games will begin to give us a sense of the balance of power in the conference. One is Wisconsin at Penn State, a game with relevance to USC because the Trojans will play both teams in October. That matchup will give Lincoln Riley and staff a much better sense of how to attack and defend against those teams. Luke Fickell is on the hot seat at Wisconsin, and Matt Campbell begins his journey at Penn State with a large number of transfers he took with him from Iowa State. That game will educate Big Ten fans and analysts, setting the stage for the rest of the season.

The other prominent Big Ten game on September 26 is Iowa at Michigan. Kirk Ferentz against Kyle Whittingham is a fantastic coaching matchup. Michigan's September schedule is rough, with a date against Oklahoma preceding this tussle with the Hawkeyes. We are going to find out how smooth – or bumpy – Whittingham's transition to the Big Ten turns out to be. The loser of that game would instantly lose considerable leverage in the push for a Big Ten title game berth and a playoff spot. It's high-stakes poker in Ann Arbor.

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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Big Ten season preview: September 26 is first major Shakeup Saturday

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