The 2020 Big Ten schedule has finally reached its end after what has been an absolute roller coaster ride of a season.
The season was originally postponed back in August, it was then reinstated, numerous games were canceled due to COVID-19 and if that wasn’t enough, the Big Ten Championship wasn’t even the last conference game played.
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Hopefully, for the sake of everybody involved, the 2021 calendar year is a bit different and things return to normal by the time the Big Ten starts up again in early September.
One of the necessities of closing a football season is giving a way-too-early look at the year to come, and rank teams based on what we saw this season and we know going into next year.
In order to do this, I put together a ranking system jokingly named Ken(ney)Pom—with reference to the college basketball ranking site KenPom. My metric weighs each team’s returning/incoming production, quarterback play, coaching and 2020 success in order to compare the teams numerically and understand why they are slotted in the spot they’re in.
Necessary disclaimer: the teams are ranked below based on who has discussed returning for another season and they are subject to change as more players enter the NFL Draft, return to play an extra year and as transfers find their homes.
So this is not a sure-fire shot at who will win the conference next season, because so much will change between now and September. It is instead a look at where things stand right now–the week after the conclusion of the 2020 season.
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Here is edition 1.0 of the way-too-early power rankings for the 2021 Big Ten football season: