Ohio State Favorites To Win Big Ten In Cleveland.com Poll

With just over a month to go until the start of the 2024 college football season, cleveland.com had its annual preseason Big Ten poll with 27 media members that cover the teams in the league voting on how they expected the league to go this year.

Of those 27 voters, 21 of them chose Ohio State to win the conference with the other six each choosing newcomers Oregon to win it in their first Big Ten season.

Of polls that have come out, Ohio State has been consistently the No. 2 team in the country behind only Georgia, so it’s not a surprise that they are currently the favorite to win the conference, especially with all of the returning talent they boast on the roster. They also were able to land multiple impact transfers in safety Caleb Downs, running back Quinshon Judkins, quarterback Will Howard and more over the offseason.

Michigan, who won the Big Ten and the national championship last season, received just one second-place vote, but finished fourth in the poll behind Penn State.

The Buckeyes will have a tough conference schedule, playing against each of the other top five teams that the media voted on in the poll. They match up against Iowa (No. 5) on Oct. 5, Oregon (No. 2) on the road the week after on Oct. 12, Penn State (No. 3) on the road on Nov. 2 and Michigan (No. 4) on Nov. 30 at Ohio Stadium.

Voters in the poll were also asked how many Big Ten teams they thought would make the first 12-team College Football Playoff. Nine voters said four teams would, 16 said that three teams would make it in and there was one voter that thought only two would and another that thought only one would make it.

This is the eighth time in the fourteen years that cleveland.com has held the poll that Ohio State was voted the favorite to win the conference, and is the fifth time under Ryan Day, last year being the only time that Michigan was chosen over the Buckeyes.

Voters also chose who they thought would be the conference coach of the year, with the Ducks’ Dan Lanning beating out Day 12-10.