Jon Joseph

Four new Big Ten head coaches come on board in 2026: Long-time Utah HC Kyle Whittingham at Michigan; long-time Northwestern HC Pat Fitzgerald at Michigan State; long-time Iowa State HC Matt Campbell at Penn State; and Bob Chesney, a coach with terrific success at undercard college football (CFB) programs, takes over at UCLA. Even our Mr. FishDuck paused from his online gaming fun at Jokabet to marvel at the high level of coaching in the Big-10 conference.

This is the fourth article in a series examining the schedules of the ten teams with the best odds of winning the 2026-27 College Football (CFB) National Championship Playoff and it covers one of our favorites? We’ve looked at the schedules for Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Georgia. This article will look into the CFB Crystal Ball to see if Mario Cristobal’s Miami Hurricanes squad, with the 7th-best odds on FanDuel to win it all at +1300, 10.5 Win Total, has a playoff-friendly schedule.

Spring Football has sprung, and Spring games have been completed from North to South and Coast-to-Coast. On April 25th, Oregon was the Big Ten’s last team to play its Spring Game, then Ducking into off-season practice before the start of Fall practice. The Sporting News (TSN) Preseason Composite Top 25 Poll has eight Big Ten teams ranked in the top 25, and Illinois is ranked No. 30 among other teams receiving votes. TSN is used for preseason rankings.