The Big Two became a Big Three
Fifty years ago the Big Ten had a nickname it did not enjoy. Woody Hayes at Ohio State and Bo Schembechler at Michigan won so often that everyone else got lumped together as the Little Eight.
The league now has 18 teams and runs coast to coast. There is still a top tier. Only one name from back then is on it.
Ohio State, Oregon and Indiana open the season first, second and sixth in the Associated Press preseason poll, three of the eight ranked Big Ten teams. Indiana is the defending national champion.
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The money says what the polls say
According to NILstandard.com, Oregon carries the second-highest roster value in the country at $43.4 million, behind only Texas at $49.3 million. Ohio State is fourth at $39.3 million. USC sits sixth at $35.2 million, Indiana 10th at $33.1 million. Stack the conference’s top three together and the figure lands near $116 million.
Recruiting follows the same map. USC led the 247Sports composite for 2026, with Oregon third and Ohio State fourth. Indiana finished 22nd and also lost Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winner and the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Three straight titles and a jab at the SEC
Michigan started the run in 2023. Ohio State and Indiana followed. Dan Lanning did not dodge the conference comparison when it came up.
“They’re both great conferences, great leagues,” the Oregon coach said. “At the end of the day there’s hardware that you hope is sitting in your conference when all is said and done and the Big Ten has been able to do that the last few years.”
Lanning came up at Georgia, so he knows the other side of the argument. His Ducks have gone 26-3 over the past two seasons, a .897 winning percentage that ranks second in the FBS behind Indiana at 27-2. Ohio State is third at 26-4. The league is 22-9 in the postseason across those two years and 8-2 against the SEC.
Michigan, Penn State, USC and Washington all expect to chase the 12 playoff spots. Getting past the three in front of them is the harder part.
“When you go to 18 teams and you add the four teams we added from the West Coast, we added championship-level teams, so the competition is at an all-time high,” Michigan State coach Pat Fitzgerald said.
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