Nobody gets an easy schedule in the Big Ten conference.
The Ohio State Buckeyes enter 2022 as a trendy College Football Playoff and national championship contender, the Michigan Wolverines are the defending Big Ten champions and Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker seemingly has his Spartans on the rise.
Then, there’s also Penn State head coach James Franklin and his Nittany Lions that have plenty of talent and expectations of their own to meet in the Big Ten East.
What about the Big Ten West? Iowa is the defending Big Ten West champion and boasts one of the league’s best defenses. If they can find a way to improve offensively, it won’t be a surprise to see the Hawkeyes make a return trip to the Big Ten championship game.
Aside from the Buckeyes’ TreVeyon Henderson, Wisconsin has the Big Ten’s most explosive running back in Braelon Allen and—similarly to Iowa—the Badgers routinely have one of the Big Ten’s most frustrating defenses to match up against. Then, there’s Tanner Morgan who is back to quarterback Minnesota and Aidan O’Connell who’s generating some Heisman Trophy darkhorse consideration at Purdue.
You get the picture. It’ll be a challenging slate for everybody once more in 2022. Still, it’s a fun exercise to break down and debate who has it the most difficult, and who caught a couple of scheduling breaks?
CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli attempted to clear up that picture, ranking all of the Big Ten’s 2022 schedules from most difficult to easiest. Let’s take a look at how he sees the conference teams’ schedules.