Ladies and gentlemen, we are less than twenty days away from the start of the college football season! I can’t believe we are here again to welcome in a brand new college football season and, while the summer is my favorite season, football couldn’t come any sooner! Full stands are expected for the 2021 season, after issues with Covid-19 either limited attendance, postponed, or canceled games altogether. This failed to offer any consistency for the players, coaches, students, and fans in general. I’m hopeful and excited that we’ll be able to enjoy a full season without interruptions and be able to see the best players compete week in and week out to improve their draft stocks, and ultimately win. We’ve looked at the best odds for the Pac-12 Conference, Big 12 Conference, and recently the ACC Conference. Now, we shift our focus to the Big Ten, a conference that is known for some tough battles in the trenches and low-scoring games. The Big Ten is a bit more balanced, given that teams manage to pull upsets here every now and then, which makes this conference a bit tougher to predict. That being said, perennial favorites still do reign supreme. The odds for this article have been provided by the DraftKings sportsbook, so we can hopefully win you some cash to spend this holiday season! Let’s take a look!
- Ohio State -200
- Wisconsin +600
- Iowa +900
- Penn State +900
- Indiana +1600
- Michigan +1800
- Minnesota +2200
- Nebraska +2500
- Northwestern +3500
- Purdue +6000
- Michigan State +6000
- Maryland +6500
- Rutgers +8000
- Illinois +15000
Ohio State begins a new era at QB, as Justin Fields has moved on to the NFL with the Chicago Bears. Even with presumed starter, redshirt freshman C.J. Stroud, the Buckeyes are still favorites to win the Big Ten (-200). Stroud will have to fend off fellow redshirt freshman Jack Miller, freshman Kyle McCord, and early enrollee Quinn Ewers, but early reports from camp indicate that this is Stroud’s job to lose. If you remember, the Buckeyes steam rolled the Clemson Tigers in the College Football Playoff Semi-Final before running into the Alabama Crimson Tide in the national championship, where they lost 52-24. The Buckeyes lost ten starters to the NFL Draft and, even with those losses, they are still thought of highly to repeat as Big Ten Champions. They do return WRs Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson (arguably the best WR duo in the country) to help keep this offense humming, which should make you comfortable about betting them to repeat as champs. The only competition I see for them is the Badgers at +600 or the Penn State Nittany Lions at +900. Penn State tends to match up well with OSU but what has separated them at the crucial moments of their games has been the play at QB, thus preventing PSU from playing in the title game since 2016.
If you believe that Jim Harbaugh will be able to get past OSU (0-5 lifetime record against them), then Michigan (+1800) might be a team that you may want to lay money on. Unfortunately, with the way the Big Ten Divisions are set up, we can’t see Michigan, Penn State, or Ohio State face off against each other in the Big Ten Championship game. The only way we would see Michigan in the title game would be if they can get past OSU and PSU, and I just don’t see it happening. I know these articles are all about grabbing the best value, and any of the “plus” value teams always look tempting. With that being said, none of the five teams immediately below OSU give me any reason to be comfortable putting money on them, that is unless you’re feeling super risky. The Iowa Hawkeyes (+900) are never an easy opponent since they seem to have pretty stout offensive and defensive lines, so it could come down to the Badgers and Hawkeyes battling it out for a chance to meet OSU in the Big Ten title game.
Similar to Clemson, I’m not jumping ship yet and I believe that the Buckeyes will repeat as Big Ten champs at -200, which is not a bad value. We are 18 days away from the first week of college football, so let’s get risky and sweat those bets out! I’ll be back to wrap up the Power 5 Conference odds as I take a look at the SEC. Will Alabama repeat? Is there a hungrier team not too far away in Athens looking to eat the competition alive? Come back and find out!
Edited By: Rupayan “Abs” Samanta.
