Building the perfect fantasy football team with Big Ten players

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The start of the 2026 college football season is fast approaching, but so are fantasy football drafts, when fans will pick the players they’ll ride or die with for the season. Historically, fantasy football is mostly reserved for the NFL, but why not have a little fun and see what it would look like using players at the college level?

Today, we’ll take a trip through the Big Ten to build out a perfect fantasy football roster using one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end, and one flex position. We also don’t acknowledge the standard scoring system around here, so points per reception (PPR) it is.

QB – Dante Moore (Oregon)

Dante Moore, Julian Sayin, Jayden Maiava and Josh Hoover were the first options that came to mind here. In fantasy football, the quarterback attributes that matter the most are touchdowns and rushing upside, which caused me to land on Moore with Maiava as a close second.

Moore is going to be playing this season in a high-volume passing offense with plenty of reliable pass-catchers at his disposal, meaning he’ll likely be finding the end zone through the air a lot. He carried the ball 73 times last year, too, which would add a good amount of points to his weekly total. This will be his second season as Oregon’s starter following a breakout in 2025.

RB1 – Antwan Raymond (Rutgers)

Rutgers usually has some talent at the running back position, and Antwan Raymond will be the bell cow for the Scarlet Knights once again this season. What makes him stand out as our team’s RB1 isn’t just his sheer rushing volume, but also the pass-catching upside. Last season, he caught 18 passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns. His 244 carries last season were among the most in the Big Ten, and it’s a good bet he’ll stick with that workload.

RB2 – Wayne Knight (UCLA)

I initially considered bigger names like Bo Jackson and Jordan Marshall for this second running back spot, but I ultimately landed on a Big Ten newcomer in Wayne Knight. He had crazy usage at James Madison last season, getting 207 carries and 40 receptions for a total of 1,770 scrimmage yards and 10 touchdowns. He’ll be playing for the same coach, Bob Chesney, meaning he’ll still likely get plenty of opportunities. However, we’ll be taking a bit of a risk here since the competition he’ll be facing this season is stiffer than what he’s used to. The UCLA offense as a whole, though, has the chance to put up some big numbers in 2026.

WR1 – Jeremiah Smith (Ohio State)

There’s no debate at all here, as Smith enters 2026 as the clear best wide receiver in the country. He finished the 2025 season with 87 receptions for 1,243 yards and 13 touchdowns, all figures that were in the top-10 nationally. There’s no reason to expect any of those figures to fall dramatically, but they might actually increase with Carnell Tate no longer in the picture and Sayin entering his second season as the starter. If we were doing a full draft, Smith might be the No. 1 overall pick.

WR2 – Nick Marsh (Indiana)

For the last two seasons, Indiana has rapidly ascended the college football ranks thanks in large part to their offensive production and effective use of the transfer portal. In 2026, Nick Marsh is a good bet to be the best wide receiver they’ve added.

Marsh was in a pretty bad environment at Michigan State the first two seasons of his college career, but still found a way to put up big numbers despite being the only thing opposing defenses needed to account for. Stepping over to a much better environment at Indiana and having a gunslinger like Hoover throwing him the ball, it could be a major statistical season for Marsh; think of the leap Keon Coleman made when he transferred from MSU to Florida State in 2023.

TE – Jamari Johnson (Oregon)

We already talked about Moore and Oregon’s high-volume passing offense, so we have to get one of his pass-catchers on our team. We’ll go with Jamari Johnson, who should be one of the country’s best tight ends in 2026.

He recorded 510 yards on 32 receptions last season, numbers that would be good for your ordinary starting tight end, but he split snaps with Kenyon Sadiq. With Sadiq now in the NFL, there should be more pass-catching opportunities heading Johnson’s way, opening the door for a potentially crazy stat line in 2026.

Flex – RB Bo Jackson (Ohio State)

There are so many players we could realistically put in this spot, but we’ll go with Jackson, whom we mentioned earlier as a consideration for the RB2 spot since high volume seems like a pretty good bet for him.

He burst onto the scene as a true freshman in 2025 with 179 carries and 19 receptions. It would only make sense that both of those figures increase during his sophomore season with more trust from the coaching staff, not to mention the fact Ohio State’s offense will be great once again. He should have plenty of goal line carries to increase his touchdown total as well.

Since we’re doing PPR, I also considered Indiana’s Charlie Becker for this spot after a big 2025 season, but ultimately landed on Jackson thanks to what’s likely a safer volume bet.

Who do you think would be some great fantasy players in the Big Ten this season? Let us know down below in the comments section!

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