The Big Ten preseason media poll is out, and once again it’s built on the kind of confidence that college football loves to punish.
Ohio State is the pick to win the conference, which is hardly a shock even after the Buckeyes had four players taken in the first 11 of the 2026 NFL Draft. Oregon is right behind them at No. 2, followed by Penn State at No. 1 in last year’s preseason forecast, a reminder that these things can age badly in a hurry.
That 2025 poll was a rough one. Penn State was the favorite and finished 7-6, while Indiana was slotted sixth and ended up delivering college football’s first 16-0 season since 1898.
The same writers had the Hoosiers pegged to slip after Kurtiss Rourke graduated, even with Curt Cignetti bringing in former Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who had thrown 16 touchdowns and six interceptions with the Bears the year before. Cignetti saw something the rest of the sport missed, and Indiana rolled all the way to an undefeated national championship.
The rest of that forecast was shaky too. Illinois was left at No.
4, USC at No. 9, and Purdue at No. 18, with the graphic even doing its usual ugly job of hiding No. 9 and No. 18.
Purdue, now under new coach Barry Odom, was coming off an 0-18 conference run over the last two seasons and hadn’t been to a bowl since 2022, when Jeff Brohm was still the head coach.
Last year’s Big Ten predictions also had Michigan State and Rutgers tied at 13th, Maryland at 15th, UCLA at 15th, Northwestern at 17th and Purdue at the bottom. Minnesota wound up climbing to 8-5 and winning another bowl, while USC outperformed expectations. But the biggest miss was Indiana, and the second-biggest was Illinois, because the champion the media expected in Penn State fell to 3-6 in league play and finished 7-6.
That’s the trap with preseason polls in this sport. Coaching matters more here than anywhere else, and so does talent evaluation. Programs change fast, especially in the NIL and Transfer Portal era, where one sharp read or one bad guess can flip a season.
Oregon’s own 2025 season was a good example. Duck fans expected Dakorien Moore to lead the receiving room, but Malik Benson ended up taking that role, shaking off a couple of spring-game drops and finishing with 43 catches for 719 yards and six touchdowns. The Ducks went 13-2, but they also lived on the edge.
Their season nearly turned on one play at Iowa, where they trailed 16-15 with 23 seconds left and faced first and 10 at their own 49. Dante Moore hit Benson to set up the winning field goal, and Oregon escaped with an 18-16 win over No. 20 Iowa.
That’s the reality behind these polls. Sometimes the gap between a conference title and a letdown is a single throw, a single kick, or a single read that nobody saw coming.
The Ducks now own the longest road winning streak in college football at 12 straight games, but they’ve also been a disappointment in neutral-site games, losing four of them in ugly, memorable fashion. Coach Lanning still has that to clean up if Oregon is going to join the sport’s top tier.
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Dan Lanning And The Ducks Face Their First 2026 Big Test In Chicago
The Big Tens annual media days bring a familiar kind of preseason stagecraft, but for Oregon this week in Chicago it also marks the first real conference spotlight of 2026. Dan Lanning will meet the press at the Hilton Chicago alongside players Dante Moore, Jamari Johnson and Teitum Tuioti, with the Ducks represented across the event as the leagues coaches and players spend three days talking through the issues that tend to shape a season before it starts.
For Oregon, the setting matters because these sessions are where the bigger questions start to take form, from College Football Playoff expectations to conference scheduling and the broader direction of the sport. Lanning will get the main room, while Moore, Johnson and Tuioti handle their own podium turns, giving the Ducks a chance to frame their own message before the seasons pressure really arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Charlie Bird Had One Surprising Realization About The Oregon Duck
Charlie Birds time as BYUs mascot gave him plenty of chances to cross paths with other college football icons, but one of the most memorable came at an ESPN College Football Awards show. Bird said he ended up in a dance-off with the Oregon Duck, a performance that fit the mascots long-running reputation for being one of the sports most entertaining sideline acts.
The Duck has only added to that image lately, including a viral Autzen Stadium entrance in a Labubu costume that kept Oregon in the conversation well beyond game day. It also tracks with the broader way Dan Lanning talks about the program, which he has framed as innovative and built for the Big Ten spotlight, even if the people inside the costume still manage to surprise the folks sharing the stage with them. [Read more 🡒]
Oregons Biggest Camp Battle Will Decide How Safe Dante Moore Is
The biggest August question around Dante Moore is not about his arm or his poise, but about the five men charged with keeping the pocket intact in front of him. Oregon has to replace key pieces up front after NFL departures, and Dan Lanning with offensive line coach Alique Terry are still sorting through left tackle, left guard and right tackle options as camp begins to sharpen the picture for 2026.
Spring gave the Ducks a first look at a mix of tackles and interior candidates, with younger players also getting a chance to make their case. Fox Crader, Zac Stacausky, Ziyare Addison and Michael Bennett were among the names getting evaluated on the edge, while Douglas Utu, Trent Ferguson, Kawika Rogers and Demetri Manning are in the mix inside, and freshmen Tommy Tofi and Immanuel Iheanacho could still change the conversation if they keep climbing. [Read more 🡒]