Starting 11: The Big Ten Falls Back To Earth Edition

This article was written and published on Sport & State, a new media company founded by Clay Travis that is built around sports, culture, original voices, and live conversation.
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For the past three years, we have seen Michigan, Ohio State, and Indiana lift the national title trophy at the end of the college football season. And we’ve seen the SEC, which dominated college football for most of the 21st century, lose its dominance. But this year we’re seeing yet another reversal, the SEC likely has 10 teams worthy of being ranked in the top 25 at this point in the season. I’ll break all those teams down below. The Big Ten has three or four — Indiana, Ohio State, UCLA, and maybe USC or Iowa. What’s more, I’m not sure any of these teams are worthy of being ranked in the top 15 right now if you judge them based on the totality of their body of work.

Yes, Indiana survived against Minnesota after dueling 60-yard field goals forced overtime, a week after the Hoosiers survived against Michigan in overtime, and a few weeks after they survived against Northwestern. But this Indiana team is nothing like last year’s Indiana team.

Ohio State beat Indiana, but otherwise has looked pedestrian for much of the year.

USC beat Ohio State a week after being humiliated by Wisconsin, Iowa beat Wisconsin a week after looking awful against Minnesota.

UCLA, well, the Bruins are 8-0, but would even the most diehard Bruin fan on the planet argue they are likely to win multiple playoff games?

Heck, leave aside your fandom, has any Big Ten team this year looked capable of winning three or four playoff games in a row? I haven’t seen it. In fact, the Big Ten looks worse than the Big 12 to me this year.

I’m not sure how good Utah, BYU, and Texas Tech are, for instance, but I’d put these three teams up against the top three teams in the Big Ten this year in neutral site games.

Oklahoma State is currently the seventh best team in the Big 12, right around where Oregon sits in the Big Ten standings.

Heck, what’s the best win the Big Ten has out of conference this year? It’s probably Michigan over Oklahoma. But both these teams are awful.

The SEC went 10-2 against power four conferences this year, the ACC went 6-9, the Big 12 went 5-7, and the Big Ten went 4-7. If you add in Notre Dame, the Big 12 rises to 6-7 and the Big Ten falls to 4-10.

Yes, Luke Fahey is a big drop off from Julian Sayin, but the Ohio State offense hasn’t looked great even with Sayin this year.

Put simply, the Big Ten looks like a two-bid playoff league this year.

And it may only deserve one bid by the time the season is over.

Because this year the Big Ten is closer to the ACC than it is the SEC.

Them’s fighting words, I know.

So let’s dive into the Starting 11 and examine all of this in greater detail.

1. USC got a win Lincoln Riley absolutely had to have.

Let’s start on the positive side here.

USC lost 24-7 at Wisconsin in one of the worst performances the Trojans have had in the Lincoln Riley era. They were absolutely atrocious. Rushing for a grand total of -17 yards. So, of course, they came back to the Coliseum a week later and put together one of the best performances of Riley’s tenure at SC.

Welcome to college football in the NIL era.

Your team can go from worst ever to best ever in seven days.

The USC pass rush was incessant, the defense flew to the ball, and the Trojans took command from the opening of the game and were the aggressor all night long.

Yes, they gave up some decent yardage, but most of that was after the 27-9 lead was established.

Having fallen out of the top 25, USC now gets a bye and then closes with at Indiana, Maryland and at UCLA. Running the table here feels unlikely, but if USC pulled that off, they’d likely be in the Big Ten title game and they’d almost certainly be in the playoff, maybe even hosting a game in the Coliseum.

For one night at least, the Trojans can dream about being back in the playoff picture.

Whether that dream lasts beyond Indiana in two weeks remains to be seen.

2. Ohio State’s schedule is fairly weak from here, but so is their offense. 

The reason I picked USC to win this game outright was because Ohio State’s offense wasn’t good with Julian Sayin and it felt crazy to me that with a true freshman starting on the road somehow the Buckeyes were supposed to win by over a touchdown.

The talent differential between Ohio State and USC isn’t that substantial and this was the ultimate buy low spot on USC.

Now Luke Fahey wasn’t bad at all, especially not for his first college start, and Ohio State went over 200 yards rushing and passing, but Ohio State got behind early and many of those yards came after they were already down 27-9 and USC was content to let Ohio State nickel and dime their way down the field.

Jeremiah Smith, who had 10 catches, but only 83 yards, was mostly a non-factor in this game. Worse than that, there’s no clear second option in the passing game and there was no true explosive play option at all.

Now sitting at 7-2 the Buckeye margin for error on making the playoff has shrunk to almost nonexistent.

Okay, having said all that, let’s talk the positive: the schedule isn’t very hard the rest of the way. Oregon looked like a heavyweight fight before the season, now it looks like a welterweight fight. Northwestern is solid, but has nowhere near the athletes as Ohio State and the game is in Columbus. Then comes a trip to Nebraska, where I don’t want to jinx things, but I fully expect the Cornhuskers to pull off the Buckeye upset in Lincoln. (We all know I just jinxed things, sorry Nebraska fans.) Finally, Michigan at Ohio State is a great rivalry, but neither team is great this year.

All that to say, Ohio State still has a relatively easy path to 10-2 and a spot in the Big Ten title game, where they might get a UCLA team they’d be favored to beat handily.

But am I wrong that even with Julian Sayin everything just has felt off this year for the Buckeyes?

It feels like a team that is less than the sum of its parts.

Some of you will blame Ryan Day, but it feels like the Buckeye offense this season has often boiled down to throw it up to Jeremiah Smith and trust him to save us rather than a well constructed offensive attack.

3. Georgia whipped Florida, but I do wonder what this game would have looked like minus the turnovers. 

The Bulldogs were up 24-0 at the half and this game was effectively over thanks to four Florida turnovers.

Georgia ran the ball 42 times for 217 yards and Florida only managed 54 yards on 28 carries.

Boom, there was your ballgame.

The fact that Florida has beaten Texas and Ole Miss this year is a bright preview for what the future may entail for the Gators. Jon Sumrall has gotten a ton out of this team.

But the Gators feel like an 8-4 team that will expect to be in the playoffs next year.

4. Utah and UCLA both stayed undefeated. 

UCLA stepped out of conference for Nevada, but Utah won an impressive road game, especially with BYU on the schedule next week.

I don’t think it’s too early to start reviewing the Big 12 standings either.

There are five teams with 6-2 or better records who can legitimately hope to make the Big 12 title game.

But up next, the Holy War, kicking off at 10 a.m. local time, an absolutely indefensible scheduling decision.

If the Utes can win that breakfast tilt, an undefeated regular season becomes a real possibility.

5. South Carolina is a top 20 team.

The Gamecocks rolled into Oklahoma where the one thing the Sooners have had to be proud of all year is their defense, and posted 521 yards of total offense, including 212 on the ground and 309 passing.

Yes, the Gamecocks were incredibly fortunate to beat Tennessee last week, but South Carolina dominated at Florida and at Oklahoma and now Brent Venables may have replaced Shane Beamer on the hot seat.

The Sooners are likely to join Texas A&M as two SEC teams that spent over $40 million on rosters that finish 6-6 or worse.

It’s one thing when teams lose.

It’s another thing when teams lose with boosters’ money being spent heavily with limited results.

Gulp.

As for the Gamecocks, yes, they have three losses, but remember they blew 16 and 17 point leads at home to Mississippi State and Kentucky, losing the latter game on a two point conversion.

Cocktober has been a real thing, once again.

6. Bill Belichick’s North Carolina team flirted with beating Miami, but couldn’t make it happen.

This was, however, definitely the best the Tar Heels have looked since the Chapel Bill era began.

This game was so wild that North Carolina converted back to back onside kicks, but had both recoveries overturned for penalties.

I know Miami has Notre Dame on the horizon, but their secondary got torched — allowing 28 completions on 34 attempts. That’s a bit ominous with Notre Dame on the horizon.

It feels like the only way the ACC gets two teams in the playoff is if Miami loses in the ACC title game.

Next week in South Bend should be electric.

7. Yes, Notre Dame beat Navy, but it feels like the Fighting Irish have to beat Miami to make the playoff. 

Otherwise, Notre Dame presently has one win over a team with a winning record — 5-3 Wisconsin.

This is not the kind of resume that deserves a spot in the 12 team playoff.

I actually even think most Notre Dame fans agree.

You can’t lose to the only two teams ranked in the top 25 you play all season and then beat ten teams with .500 or lower records and argue you deserve a spot in the playoff.

Having said all this, I do think Notre Dame will beat Miami on Saturday night.

Speaking of which, get all your to do lists completed for the wife early this week, because every college football fan in the country is going to watch games all day long on November 7th.

It’s just a cavalcade of awesomeness.

8. Let’s talk big picture playoff here.

The ACC is likely to get Miami and Miami alone unless the Hurricanes lose the ACC title game, the Big 12 will get at most two teams, although one team isn’t impossible either, the Big Ten looks like a two or at most three bid league, you have the non power conference bid, Notre Dame if they beat Miami, and then there are five or even six SEC teams, I think that will get in.

Rumors of the SEC’s demise, it appears, were quite exaggerated.

9. I tossed off a flippant line about Maryland not belonging in the Big Ten for football and it got a decent amount of attention online.

The tweet was about the crowd at kickoff.

Maryland should have never left the ACC. And the Big Ten never should have taken them.

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) October 31, 2026

So let me explain it a bit more here — Maryland doesn’t belong in the Big Ten for football.

Rutgers doesn’t either.

I’m going to write on this longer form when I get the time, but the Big Ten picked markets over brands in expanding to add Maryland and Rutgers and I think both moves have been big misses for the conference. Meanwhile the SEC has picked brands, mostly, over markets. And the conference has won in the marketplace.

Because fans want to watch big brands not big markets.

The Big Ten made its picks based on cable TV, which made sense at the time, but has faded in relevancy as we’ve moved into an attention economy. (To be fair, the Big Ten also added Nebraska around the same time as Maryland and Rutgers and the conference didn’t expect the Cornhuskers were going to fall completely off the national radar.)

The advantage the SEC has over the rest of college football is SEC fans watch all the teams in their conference play. That’s why going to nine conference games has led to record ratings for the SEC — because there are more big game collisions in conference and hence more people watching.

Most college football fans watch their favorite team play, but don’t watch much else of the conference.

SEC fans watch college football all day long, featuring all the teams in the conference. In that sense, the SEC fans are more like the NFL fans, where the popularity of fantasy football has led to huge audiences no matter who plays.

Now it makes complete financial sense for Maryland to have left for the Big Ten — every team with the opportunity has to take an invite to the SEC or the Big Ten because the rest of college football is crumbling — but the overall brand of the Big Ten has declined with much of their expansion.

I know we will probably never see it happen, but the Big Ten would be better off with fewer schools. Instead of expansion, we should see relegation.

And if you really want me to get people riled up, what if Ohio State left the Big Ten for the SEC?

Would the Big Ten even matter any more?

Heck, I bet if you polled Ohio State fans they’d actually prefer to play in the SEC.

10. My Perfect 10 Mortgage Top Ten

Go to Perfect 10 Mortgage to wipe out your credit card debt or your personal loans. Give Perfect 10 ten minutes and they will have a brand new mortgage for you in as little as ten days. 

Okay, here we go with the Perfect Top Ten.

1. Miami

2. Georgia

3. UCLA

4. Utah

5. Texas

6. Kentucky

7. Ohio State

8. Indiana

9. BYU

10. Notre Dame

11. SEC power rankings 1-16

I think we have a pretty clear sense for the bottom six and the top ten at this point. Yes, Texas lost to Oklahoma, Ole Miss lost to Florida, and, even crazier, Georgia managed to lose to Auburn, but those losses to much worse teams are the outliers.

I have Texas as the second best team in the SEC because they have, by far, the three best wins in college football: Ohio State, Tennessee, and Ole Miss.

Kentucky’s loss to Alabama is a bit of a challenge, but the Wildcats have won five straight SEC games since then and Alabama has lost twice. So I’ve got the Wildcats as my third best team.

As a general rule if the teams have the same record, I have tried to put the team that beat them ahead of the team they beat, since this seems pretty basic to me. But evidently this logic is impossible for most poll voters to comprehend.

With that in mind, here we go:

1. Georgia

2. Texas

3. Kentucky

4. Tennessee

5. Alabama

6. Ole Miss

7. LSU

8. South Carolina

9. Missouri

10. Florida

11. Oklahoma

12. Auburn

13. Mississippi State

14. Texas A&M

15. Arkansas

16. Vanderbilt

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