{"id":447492,"date":"2026-02-04T00:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T00:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/447492\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T00:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T00:07:08","slug":"joel-klatt-ranks-the-three-easiest-2026-big-ten-schedules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/447492\/","title":{"rendered":"Joel Klatt ranks the three easiest 2026 Big Ten schedules"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Big Ten Conference, which featured three teams in the 2025-26 College Football Playoff, has emerged as the best conference in all of college football. Along with consistently enjoying success in postseason games, they have also enjoyed three consecutive National Champions (Michigan<\/a>, Ohio State<\/a>, and Indiana<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Who could be the next Big Ten team to continue the trend and become the fourth Big Ten team in four seasons to win the Playoff? Well, schedule has a lot to do with getting there.<\/p>\n

Ahead of a long and tumultuous offseason, FOX Sports\u2019 Joel Klatt ranked the three easiest Big Ten schedules next season<\/a> on the latest edition of \u2018The Joel Klatt Show\u2018.<\/p>\n

Sept. 5: vs. Marshall<\/a>
Sept. 12: @ Temple<\/a>
Sept. 19: vs. Buffalo<\/a>
Sept. 26: vs. Wisconsin<\/a>
Oct. 2: @ Northwestern<\/a>
Oct. 10: vs. USC<\/a>
Oct. 17: @ Michigan<\/a>
Oct. 31: vs. Purdue<\/a>
Nov. 7: @ Washington<\/a>
Nov. 14: vs. Minnesota<\/a>
Nov. 21: vs. Rutgers<\/a>
Nov. 28: @ Maryland<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe best schedule in the Big Ten, the jackpot winner that hit the lottery, is new head coach Matt Campbell<\/a> and the Penn State Nittany Lions,\u201d Klatt said. \u201cThis thing is not difficult. It just isn\u2019t at all. They don\u2019t have much in the non-conference with Marshall, Temple, and Buffalo. That\u2019s obviously manageable, even for a new coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey only face two of what I would categorize as the top-six teams in the conference. They happen in October, and one of them is at home. By the way, your lone really tough game on the road is Michigan, and they\u2019ve got a brand new coach. This is the absolute schedule lottery in the Big Ten.\u201d<\/p>\n

No Big Ten team has it easier this season than Penn State and newly hired head coach Matt Campbell. The Nittany Lions avoided Indiana<\/a>, Ohio State, Oregon, and Illinois, while one of their two hardest games (USC and Michigan) is at home in Happy Valley. The program could bounce back from a disappointing 2025 in a big way this season.<\/p>\n

Sept. 5: vs. UAB<\/a>
Sept. 12: vs. Duke<\/a>
Sept. 19: vs. Southern Illinois<\/a>
Sept. 26: @ Ohio State<\/a>
Oct. 3: vs. Purdue<\/a>
Oct. 10: @ Michigan State<\/a>
Oct. 24: vs. Oregon<\/a>
Oct. 31: @ Maryland<\/a>
Nov. 7: vs. Nebraska<\/a>
Nov. 14: @ UCLA<\/a>
Nov. 21: vs. Iowa<\/a>
Nov. 28: @ Northwestern<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIllinois hit the schedule lottery, and again, you look at this (schedule) and think they have to play Ohio State on the road and Oregon,\u201d Klatt said. \u201cThey sure do, but it matters when it happens and it matters what happens around them. Duke is on the non-conference schedule for Illinois, and they lost their quarterback. That\u2019s a different team without their quarterback.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Illinois, really their toughest test, on the road is at Ohio State. Even if you lose that one, you\u2019ve got Oregon at home and Iowa at home. It\u2019s really not a tough slate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bret Bielema<\/a> and the Illinois Fighting Illini have posted back-to-back seasons of nine-plus wins for the first time in program history, but have yet to break into the College Football Playoff picture. If it could pull off an upset win against either Ohio State or Oregon and win all the games they\u2019ll be projected to win, the Illini could make some noise come December.<\/p>\n

Sept. 5: vs. Northern Illinois<\/a>
Sept. 12: vs. Iowa State<\/a>
Sept. 19: vs. Northern Iowa<\/a>
Sept. 26: @ Michigan<\/a>
Oct. 3: vs. Ohio State<\/a>
Oct. 10: @ Washington<\/a>
Oct. 24: @ Minnesota<\/a>
Oct. 31: vs. Wisconsin<\/a>
Nov. 7: @ Northwestern<\/a>
Nov. 14: vs. Purdue<\/a>
Nov. 21: @ Illinois<\/a>
Nov. 27: vs. Nebraska<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIowa got a pretty darn good schedule,\u201d Klatt said. \u201cFirst and foremost, their big non-conference game is Iowa State. Iowa State was decimated when they lost their coach, Matt Campbell. He went to Penn State and their entire roster basically left. That\u2019s their tough non-conference game, and it\u2019s at Kinnick.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see another top-six team in the conference on that list (across Iowa\u2018s final six games). To me, that\u2019s a schedule lottery win for Iowa. If they can get through their first five with just two losses and win at Washington, all of a sudden you\u2019re scaring at a 10-win season because the back half of your schedule is not entirely unmanageable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iowa has won at least eight games in 10 consecutive (full) seasons dating back to 2015. In the era of the 12-team College Football Playoff, 10 wins (which the Hawkeyes have done four times in that span) would likely be enough to earn them their first ever CFP appearance. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Big Ten Conference, which featured three teams in the 2025-26 College Football Playoff, has emerged as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,58826,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-447492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-joel-klatt","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-ncaafootball","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}