ESPN picks top 3 finishers in Big Ten football. Where is Ohio State?

We’re still three months away from the start of the 2026 college football season, but that time will fly faster than a gnat in a tornado. From now until then, we’ll see plenty of predictions and previews of the season come across our feeds, and it’s no different with ESPN.

The “worldwide leader” and its resident analytics guru, Bill Connelly, recently provided a preview of what we can expect in the Big Ten, and there are some interesting nuggets in there, namely with what teams will contend for the conference championship. According to Connelly, there’s three teams that should be in position to contend for a Big Ten title and, ultimately, get into the College Football Playoff.

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Big Ten football title and CFP contenders

According to Connelly and his SP+ Rankings, Ohio State is the favorite to win the Big Ten and a CFP contender along with Oregon and defending CFP national champion Indiana. The Buckeyes are first in SP+iin all of FBS heading into the season with the top projected defense and No. 2 projected offense in the conference.

Big Ten football best games of 2026

On the way to that, Connelly also identified the five best games in the Big Ten, with Ohio State included in two of those — Ohio State at Indiana on Oct. 17 and Oregon at Ohio State on Nov. 7. The other three games in the lot of five include USC at Penn State (Oct. 10), Indiana at Michigan (Oct. 24), and Indiana at Washington (Nov. 21).