With Week One just 11 days away, media outlets are spinning out predictions and bold statements for the Conference Championship, the national title chase and individual award winners. Tom Fornelli and the team at cbs.com threw some 50-yard bombs just a little more than a half hour ago.
A few samples:
While stopping a three-game skid against the Wolverines is a goal for Ohio State in 2024, so is winning a national title.
The Buckeyes are the overwhelming favorite to at least win the Big Ten, according to most of our college football experts, but there's little consensus elsewhere.
There's a strong case for Ryan Day's squad as the Big Ten favorite and a national title contender. They're loaded with talent on both sides of the ball, and the coach/quarterback combination of Chip Kelly and Will Howard could prove lethal.
The CBS experts may be in agreement, but it's too soon to coronate Ohio State. They have some tough games to win on the road, particularly in Eugene and Happy Valley, and home games against Iowa and Michigan aren't automatic wins either. It'd be foolish not to respect the Buckeyes, but equally foolish to presume they won't be challenged.
Michigan plays three of the top four teams in the preseason AP Top 25. Michigan should still be a borderline top-25 team, but the Wolverines are closer to the pack than the contenders.
Around the internet it's been a popular position to discount the defending champions this off season, and there's a logical case for predicting a regression to the mean. After all, Jim Harbaugh is gone and so are J.J. McCarthy and Blake Corum. But the Wolverines have plenty of star power left in the lineup. On offense there's running back Donovan Edwards and preseason All-American tight end Colston Loveland. But it's the defense that really remains imposing: the nucleus of Kenneth Grant, Mason Graham and Will Johnson, plus two senior safeties, makes for a defense that will keep Michigan in games throughout the year.
An anonymous Big Ten assistant coach told the Athlon preview magazine this spring, "They'll take a step back, but maybe not as far as you think."
We saw TCU fail to make a bowl game in 2023 just one season after playing for the national championship. The same thing could happen with Washington, which lost head coach Kalen DeBoer and nearly every starter from a 14-1 squad. The Huskies made a great hire in Jedd Fisch from Arizona , but they have too many new faces to be competitive in a new conference during a transition for the roster, staff and program.
The Husky faithful have given most of their energy this off season to trolling Duck fans on social media, all the while ignoring a roster with serious problems. Big Ten seasons will require depth and strength in the trenches, and it just isn't there. Washington graduated an exceptional group of 5th- and 6th-year seniors. It will take a season or two for Fisch to rebuild, provided he stays when jobs open up in the SEC like Florida and Arkansas.
Just one member of the CBS panel, David Cobb, picked Oregon instead of Ohio State to win the conference title in the Ducks first year in the league. Cobb wrote:
Oregon is a program on the rise under third-year coach Dan Lanning, and the Ducks have all they need to take the Big Ten by storm. Oklahoma transfer Dillon Gabriel is more than capable of filling Bo Nix's shoes at quarterback, and he's surrounded by elite skill talent and a loaded offensive line. Oregon's defense doesn't look quite as imposing as Ohio State's, but the Ducks should have a more explosive offense. That offense will carry Oregon to at least one victory over the Buckeyes, and maybe two if there is a rematch of their Oct. 12 meeting in the Big Ten Championship Game.
That logic sounds impeccable here in the Willamette Valley, but the key to speaking it into existence is the play of Jeff Bassa and the Oregon linebackers. They've got to matchup with Will Howard and Quinshon Judkins and make plays in space. They are the key to the Ducks defense taking the leap necessary to withstand teams with elite talent at the skill positions. To reach the level of a playoff/conference champion team, this unit has to stay healthy and elevate its play.
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