Jon Joseph

Dante is 2026 B1G QB No. 1 - https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/big-ten-qb-rankings-2026-season-dante-moore-oregon/

Thank you for the info, H. Direct payments and NIL have leveled the CFB and CBB field talent wise. They have also reduced the depth and quality of the rosters. Amen on hiding mistakes. A basketball bench is much shorter than a football bench. And with the bigger NIL deals and direct payments being dedicated to football, once you have spent what is needed to take care of the starting five in basketball and maybe one or two other capable players, there is a substantial drop-off when starters are injured. Perhaps I'm just an old guy waving his cane, but today's players with better nutritional guidelines and strength and conditioning programs are more often injured than those of us raised by The Greatest Generation. And members of The Greatest Generation thought that starting both games in a doubleheader was no big deal. When basketball players competing in the NCAA and NBA today are dinged, many of these 'injured' players look like 'injured' professional soccer players who are at death's door and then back on their feet without going to the sidelines. When the guys who are being paid top dollar can't go, no matter how good the coaching, good luck. I think this disappointing season for Men's basketball has more to do with systemic issues than with Dana's coaching. The spirit is still there with this team, and the flesh is willing. But the flesh of healthy players is not ready for B1G-time ball.

With Altman's tenure, is Rob Mullens prepared to force Altman into something that the coach doesn't think he needs? A lot of assumptions in this question, no doubt. Perhaps Dana asked for a GM, and Rob said no? Even without a GM, I cannot imagine that Dana is not receiving help on the direct payment and NIL fronts. I look at where Dana is in his career, and I think of Michigan State's Tom Izzo, another veteran coach who is not happy with the state of college athletics. While I am certain Izzo receives help on the transfer and NIL front, from what I can determine using a modest search engine being deployed by a guy with modest tech skills, Michigan State basketball does not have a GM. Thanks for another thought-provoking article, Darren. Are you or any of us certain that the money for a GM is available? The cash king is football. Rob Mullens says football ticket prices are going up in 2026 because the athletic department needs more money. This is happening at Oregon, one of twelve B1G athletic departments that is in the black. (Private schools USC and Northwestern do not have to file a financial statement with the Department of Education.) But dig deeper: many profitable programs, mostly due to football, student fees, and state support, are revenue-wise in the black but carry significant debt and debt service obligations. From a liquidation analysis, many of these 'profitable' athletic departments are functionally insolvent. According to Big Ten Network, across the Big Ten and its panoply of varsity sports, one team outside of Football and Men's Basketball is profitable. The Minnesota men's hockey team. The injuries are troubling. Are the strength and conditioning programs for varsity sports at Oregon and elsewhere across the conference operating at the top level? Perhaps it is generational, but athletes today seem to be injured and unable to play more than back in the day when boo-boos were cured by rubbing some dirt on them. GM or not, the majority of B1G Men's basketball teams have not had their full complement of athletes available this season, including OBD, UCLA, USC, and UW. You can bring players in with NIL, but with bigger bodies banging together at faster speeds, can you keep them healthy? A GM would likely help with the roster, but would be of no help with keeping the roster at full strength. Win the opening game in the B1G CBB tournament on Tuesday, March 10th, and advance. The team is down this year, but the team has not given up, a testament to Dana Altman. Thanks again, Darren, for the terrific and timely article. The cost of fielding varsity college programs is unsustainable. But can this problem be fixed?

The Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament starts on Tuesday, March 10th. The games will be played at the Chicago United Center. As of March 1, 2026, No. 16 seed Oregon would open against No. 17 Maryland. Seedings for the entire field as of March 1st are shown below. Oregon suffered a bad beat at Northwestern on Saturday. Down by one point, the conference's leading scorer, Northwestern's Nick Martinelli, overcame solid Oregon defense and scored the winning basket with 1.5 seconds left to be played. Martinelli's winning bucket came on Nick Martinelli Bobblehead Night. Martinelli leads B1G scoring and is odds-on to be only the 5th B1G men's CBB player to win back-to-back scoring titles. If Oregon wins six games in a row, the Ducks would win the championship and advance to the NCAA Tournament. So, you're saying there's a ... 😁 On32026 Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament Bracket: Updated...With just one week remaining in the regular season, the latest seeds/bracket for the 2026 Big Ten Tournament in Chicago has been revealed.

CBS Sports' Brad Crawford has identified 26 of the college football (CFB) games in 2026 that will have the most impact on which teams are chosen for the 2026-27 CFB Playoff (PO). https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-2026-miami-notre-dame-ohio-state-indiana/ The folks at B1G HQ in Chicago should remind Brad that CBS is no longer an SEC broadcast partner. 13 games on his list are of the it Just Means More variety. Hmmm. Eight B1G games are on the list in the order of ranking below. The No. 1 game does offer Brad a measure of hope for absolution. No, 22 - 10/17 - Penn State at Michigan - A battle of experienced coaches new to the B1G. No. 13 - 9/12 - Oklahoma at Michigan - Payback for the Wolverines? No. 12 - 10/31 - Ohio State at USC - In year three of an 18-team Big Ten, these two teams that battled in eight Rose Bowl games, going 4-4, meet as conference opponents. No. 10 - 9/26 - Oregon at USC - Ranking this game above TOSU at USC gives Brad's list a modicum of credibility. No. 8 - 11/28 - Michigan at Ohio State - Will Ryan Day close his 2-4 gap versus the Wolverines? No. 5 - 9/12 - Ohio State at Texas - Unlike the 2025 opener between Texas and Ohio State in Columbus, the two QBs come into the game as experienced starters, with a Week 1 cupcake chomping: Ohio State vs. Ball State and Texas vs. New World 😁Texas State. This game will not kick off at Noon Eastern - Plan on watching the game on ABC at 7:30 PM Eastern, 4:30 PM Pacific, with Herbie and Chris on the call. No. 3 - 10/17 - Ohio State at Indiana - Both the Buckeyes and the Hoosiers brought in solid transfer portal hauls. 247 Sports ranks Ohio State as the 5th-best portal picker, with Indiana ranked 8th. Will transfer QB Josh Hoover approach the numbers Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza put up last season? Many of the players Curt Cignetti brought with him from JMU are out of eligibility. How will a younger Indiana team perform in 2026? Indiana is odds-on to be undefeated when this game is played. Ohio State is a +2.5 underbuck against Texas, but will be favored in the rest of its games. Unfortunately, this game will likely kick off at Noon Eastern, and draw millions fewer viewers who would watch the game in prime time. Number 1 - 10/17 - Oregon at Ohio State - Coming in at No. 1 makes 13 SEC games on Brad's list, a venial and not a mortal sin. Coming into this Week 10 game, even with Ohio State and Oregon having difficult schedules, there is an excellent chance for both the Ducks and the Bucks to be undefeated or to have only one loss. Ohio State will be coming off a Week 9 game against USC in Los Angeles. In Week 9, OBD hosts Northwestern. Both teams will be traveling from the Pacific to the Eastern time zone. Possibly a scheduling break for Oregon. But don't overlook a motivated Chipper and Northwestern. This game should have a significant influence on PO seeding, and will also most likely be a Noon kickoff on Fox. Nevertheless, an ESPN College GameDay Week 10 showing in Columbus is likely. Is it September 5th yet?

It's a looooong wait to 9/5/26, but spring ball has already sprung on some campuses, and on 3/12/26, Oregon begins Spring Practice. https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/biggest-spring-practice-lane-kiffin-lsu-michigan-storylines/

Photo Caption: Why is B1G HQ bucking me like this! 🤬 YardbarkerDaunting Ohio State schedule could be toughest in Buckeye...After an undefeated regular season record in 2025, Ohio State will be going into 2026 with possibly one of its hardest schedules in the program’s history.

Thanks for the post. Kudos to Dan's portal picking. Get out of that helmet ASAP! The Gopher might be taken for a beaver.🤬 Oregon Ducks On SIDan Lanning Continues Key Transfer Portal TrendOregon Ducks coach Dan Lanning is continuing a trend of bringing in impact playmakers from the transfer portal. A season after inserting safety Dillon Thieneman

As bad as the Ducks played in the Peach Bowl, Ohio State versus the No.10 seed played as badly, if not worse, in the Cotton Bowl. Ohio State has a more difficult schedule in 2026 than it did when it went 12-0 before losing back-to-back games against Indiana and Miami. The Buckeyes did not play Indiana and Oregon in the 2025 regular season. Both teams are on the Ohio State schedule this season. And with Arch Manning as the starter for the second season, a Week 2 game versus Texas in Austin will be more of a challenge than last season's Week 1 opener in Columbus. Ryan Day has many wins and a Natty. But if he had the talent Day had last season, I think Urban Meyer wins a B1G title, and TOSU repeats as the National Champion. Saturday BlitzThe NFL Combine is showing Ohio State wasted an All-Time...In any sport, it’s incredibly hard to win back-to-back Championships, but especially in a sport like college football where upsets happen every weekend. Through

As Forum Friend Mike Whitty noted in his excellent article on how to balance the Big Ten conference schedules, posted on February 19, 2026, in-conference schedules in today's college football mega-conferences vary significantly from season to season. With 18, 17, and 16-team Power 4 conferences playing nine-game conference schedules, a team's conference strength of schedule (SOS) from season to season is based on the luck of the draw. For example, in 2026, USC plays the three teams the B1G sent to last season's playoff: Indiana, Ohio State, and Oregon. Wisconsin misses all three playoff teams. With the year-to-year roster turnover in college football (CFB) that is exacerbated by today's transfer portal, I have no better idea how to balance CFB schedules beyond the ideas considered by Mike and those who commented on Mike's article. I am the first to acknowledge that evaluating SOS in the preseason is a complete crap shoot. You can load your prediction dice with all kinds of information from yesterday, but at the end of the season, you are as likely to roll snake eyes as you are a 7 or 11. With that said, my Big Ten 2026 SOS calculus breaks the conference into five tiers, five tiers based on The Sporting News preseason top 25 composite rankings. The preseason top 25 predictions used in the composite: The Sporting News (TSN), Athlon, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, and On3. Nine B1G teams are in TSN's top 25, including Others Receiving Votes, No. 30 Illinois. I used last season's results to rank the rest of the B1G teams. I only analyzed the schedules of the nine teams ranked by TSN, but you never know when an Indiana will arise or when a Penn State might crater. Tier 1 - 1. Ohio State - TSN No. 1 / 2. Indiana - TSN No. 4 / 3. Oregon - TSN No. 5 Tier 2 - 4. USC - TSN 13 / 5. Michigan - TSN 14 Tier 3 - 6. Penn State - TSN 20 / 7. Iowa - TSN 21 / 8. Washington - TSN 22 9. Illinois - TSN 30. Tier 4 - 10. Minnesota / 11. Northwestern / 12 Nebraska. Not ranked by TSN Finished 2025 with a winning record and qualified for bowl games. Tier 5 - 13. UCLA / 14. Wisconsin / 15. Rutgers / 16. Michigan State 17. Maryland / 18 Purdue Using these tiers, I ranked the top nine teams. I adjusted an opponent's ranking by minus .5 if the game was on the road. EXAMPLE using OBD's schedule - At USC 1.5, UCLA 5, Nebraska 4, at Illinois 2.5, Northwestern 4, at Ohio State 0.5, Michigan 2, at Michigan State 4.5, Washington 3. TOTAL - 27 The number of home games and whether a team plays five or 4 conference games at home or on the road (5/4 or 4/5) are not included in the SOS calculus. Neither are factors such as Oregon being the only Big Ten team playing eight conference games without a break, including playing two of the eight on the road in November. For conference championship purposes, whether a team plays five or four conference games at home matters and is factored in by giving more weight to conference away games. I have neither the brain nor the computer power to add nuance beyond home and away games to the below rankings. From a playoff overall record POV, with 8 home games and a 5/4 conference split, Michigan and Illinois have an advantage. With 8 home games, a 5/4 split, and no Power 4 opponent OOC, Indiana is looking good to repeat as the conference champion, making the playoff for the third season in a row, and earning back-to-back playoff 1st round byes. And Indiana is the only one of eight teams with a first-round playoff bye to win its second-round game, and did so while coming up Roses and turning the Crimson Tide into a leaky faucet. SOS Rankings - The lower the number, the more difficult the schedule. 1. Ohio State - 23.5 - Plus, at TSN No. 2 Texas - 7 Home Games - 5/4 2. Washington -25.5 - No OOC Power 4 opponent - 7 Home - 4/5 3. Michigan - 26 - Plus, No. 10 Oklahoma - 8 Home - 5/4 4. Oregon - 27 - Plus, Mountain West champion Boise State, and at Oklahoma State - 7 Home - 5/4 5. USC - 27.5 - With a game to be determined, no OOC Power 4 opponent TBD Home - 4/5 6. Indiana - 28 - No OOC Power 4 opponent - 8 Home - 5/4 7. Illinois - 30 - Plus, Not Ranked (NR) Duke - 8 Home - 5/4 8. Iowa - 33 - Plus, NR Iowa State - 7 Home - 4/5 9. Penn State - 34 - No OOC P4 opponent - 8 Home - 4/5 Ohio State is No. 1 in the TSN rankings, but the Buckeyes' schedule in and out of conference in 2026 is more demanding than when it finished 12-0 in the 2025 regular season. Indiana plays Ohio State in Bloomington. Oregon flies to Columbus to play Ohio State. I think No. 4-ranked Indiana has the best path to a repeat conference championship. If QB Hoover can play anywhere near the level of Heisman winner Mendoza, watch out for the Hoo, Hoo, Hoosiers. BEAT BOISE!

You B1G, and SEC, Meanies! How dare you, self-interested 🤬, focus on the bottom line! ESPN.comSEC, Big Ten study: Pooling TV rights 'dangerously unwork...A study commissioned by the SEC and the Big Ten concluded that allowing conferences to pool their media rights would generate less revenue than if the leagues continue the decades-old practice of sell

Cody believes that lesser brands, businesses that are managed worse than others, and businesses that have less invested in athletics than others, deserve a seat at the same table as the Power 2. Adding to Drake's spot-on comment above, how about every oil company in the Texas Oil Patch gets the same revenue, no matter how poorly their business is managed? And UTEP, here's the same money I gave to Texas Tech to pick the portal. Buy your own championship team. On3Cody Campbell takes direct shot at Greg Sankey, Tony Peti...Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell accused Big Ten and SEC leaders of not caring about the future of college athletics at large on Thursday.

I feel the need. The Need for Speed! 🦆

It would also just happen to help his conference's finances to the detriment of the Power 2's finances. When Cody's idea first surfaced, the B1G and the SEC told him to get lost. The only place where interest in the idea is growing is within the mind of the author. Apparently, multi-billionaire oilman Campbell does not understand the meaning of 'NO!' Or, the author didn't hear the B1G and SEC just saying, "NO!" Cody has learned one lesson at least. This season, he is buying an offense to go with an excellent defense. It's a long offseason. 😴

A bit more on potential enforcement. LOL. A coach who has been penalized for 'tampering' is the well-known bandito, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz. 🤠 YardbarkerNCAA could suspend coaches for adding players after trans...The NCAA is weighing unprecedented penalties, including fines and multi-game suspensions, for coaches who add players after the transfer portal deadline.