Big Ten preseason chatter has already started to sort the league into tiers, and the latest Cleveland.com media poll puts Oregon right where the conversation says it belongs: No. 2, behind Ohio State and ahead of Indiana.
That setup matters because the poll does more than rank teams. It sketches out a path.
With Ohio State and Oregon sitting atop the list, the expectation is clear enough - those two are projected to meet in the Big Ten Championship Game after already facing each other in the regular season. The poll also points to Ohio State winning that title game, which would make the Buckeyes the conference favorites in the eyes of the voters.
For Oregon, the road back to that kind of showdown is not a soft one. The Ducks travel to Ohio State in November, so any potential rematch in the conference title game would come with a short turnaround.
And the last time those two teams played twice in one season, the Buckeyes came out on top. Given Dan Lanning’s history with rematches, that’s not exactly the kind of setup Ducks fans are eager to see.
The poll also shows just how loaded Oregon’s Big Ten slate looks. Lanning and company have five of the conference’s top 10 teams on the schedule: No.
1 Ohio State, No. 4 USC, No.
5 Michigan, No. 7 Washington, and No.
9 Illinois.
Oregon will go on the road to play USC, Illinois, and Ohio State, while Michigan and Washington come to Eugene. In other words, the Ducks are dealing with more top-10 opponents than teams outside that group in conference play.
USC and Oregon are both projected to finish in the Big Ten’s top five, and both are being talked about as legitimate College Football Playoff threats. Washington isn’t far behind at No. 7, which only adds to the sense that the West Coast teams are arriving with real weight in their new league.
The rest of the poll gives a fuller picture of the league’s early hierarchy. Indiana lands at No. 3, followed by USC, Michigan, Penn State, Washington, Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota in the top 10. UCLA checks in at No. 13 in the first season under new coach Bob Chesney.
The Big Ten does not have an official media poll, which is why the Cleveland.com version has become one of the clearest preseason reference points before Big Ten Media Days begin on July 28. And with Oregon ranked near the top, the message is simple: the Ducks are being treated like a real contender, but the schedule is built to test that status immediately.
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