Perhaps comparable to the NFC West division of the NFL betting league for the fact that one team has been dominant for the past few years the Big Ten has become the most irrelevant of the college conferences beyond Ohio State. The Buckeyes ran their conference championship streak to five consecutive years in 2009, finishing in a tie with Iowa and Penn State at 11-2 overall, but with a 7-1 record within the Big Ten. Once again the majority of predictions have pinned Ohio State to return to the top of the conference as champions in 2010, with the Hawkeyes, Nittany Lions, and Badgers projected to round out the top four in similar fashion to the previous year.
A shocking, online sports betting loss to underdog Purdue was the only setback in an otherwise perfect run through conference play a year ago for the Buckeyes, but the loss put their streak of Big Ten titles at stake. Ohio State needed a road win over second-place Iowa to seal the championship, a game that ended up haunting the Hawkeyes as the difference maker in the title race. With quarterback Terrelle Pryor back under center taking snaps as a threat to run and pass, the offense could be even better in 2010. With a relatively weak schedule and continuity on both sides of the ball, there is nothing that suggests the Buckeyes will not only be competing for the conference, but for a shot at a national championship as well.
The biggest adversity the Buckeyes will face this year is another road trip to Iowa, where they barely managed to escape with a victory a year ago. The Hawkeyes lost tackle Bryan Bulaga and linebacker Pat Angerer in the first two rounds of the NFL draft, but both spots are projected to be filled by adequate replacements. As long as head coach Kirk Ferentz’s squad doesn’t suffer the same football betting setback they did against Northwestern a year ago, the Hawkeyes should be one of the four nationally ranked teams competing with Ohio State for conference supremacy.
Wisconsin capitalized on a weaker schedule to finish third in the NCAA college football betting conference based on a tiebreaker with Penn State, and although the Badgers should be in the thick of things in conference play it may be too tall a task to crack the top-20. The Nittany Lions had the third toughest schedule in the division, and finished just one game behind Wisconsin for third in the conference, matching the Badgers in the Big Ten with a 6-2 record.
With Ohio State projected as the only team in the Big Ten to have a legitimate national title shot, and the Hawkeyes, Badgers, and Nittany Lions all projected to battle for the remaining top-four spots, the question that arises is what to make of the remaining seven teams in the conference. None have the talent or depth to think that they will compete with the big four, and it may be a while before there is significant change at the top.
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