Big Ten Football: Storylines That Will Define the Season

Michigan State is a lock for the College Football Playoff if – and it’s a big IF – it negotiates a schedule that includes last season’s championship finalists, Oregon and Ohio State.

Michigan State is coming off a season in which it defeated Baylor in a bowl game and then watched reporters flock to Ann Arbor to cover rival Michigan’s hiring of Jim Harbaugh. The Wolverines get a challenge right away at Utah in the first Thursday of the season. They may just roll off eight wins to open the season, which brings us to November. 7 at the Horseshoe. Still, the roster is full of players who were on the field last season when UW rushed for 591 yards and embarrassed Nebraska, 59-24.

For the Spartans, the game against Penn State will end a tough stretch of games at Nebraska and Oho State and home against Maryland.

Only four college football teams have repeated as national champion since the mid-1970s. Michigan State is projected to be one of the top teams in the conference and is the favorite to contend with Ohio State for the Big Ten East title. The Spartans might have a drop off on defense with defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi departing to Pittsburgh.

Nothing screams Michigan State basketball rather than toughness.

Plenty of Hackenberg’s problems can be placed on what was one of the worst offensive lines in college football last season, as the Penn State quarterback found himself sacked 44 times, the second-most of any player in the nation.

The most intriguing position battle for Maryland, though, is to replace Steffen, who started for the U.S. National Team at the U-20 World Cup this summer. I thought Bosa would get to the record previous year when he had 11.5 sacks with three regular season games left. That snapped Ohio State’s 35-game home winning streak.

The MSU volleyball team will get their 2015 season underway when the Spartans take on 15th ranked Kentucky on Friday, August 28, followed by Arkansas-Little Rock and IUPUI on August 29 at the Bluegrass Invite in Lexington, Ky. They have two of the first three conference games at home, which happen to be Penn State (Dec. 30) and Rutgers (Jan. 6). He’s active from the start – though I’d be somewhat surprised if he actually sees the field in the opener – and at some point he’s going to be back in game shape.

The Badgers are the Big Ten’s only other ranked team in the preseason and have been the league’s most successful program outside of the Buckeyes and Spartans the past five years.

But are there any other Big Ten teams with a shot? While a number of the games over the first two days are a bit lackluster, this should be an extremely physical and typical Big Ten beatdown involving two of the conference’s better teams.

Over/Under 5.5 wins – Indiana has made one bowl appearance since 1994 and this projected win total is asking them to be bowl eligible. The Hoosiers should be 3-1 or 4-0 heading into conference play. With down years expected from Wisconsin and Nebraska, the Gophers have their best chance to reach the conference title game. The secondary will look to shut down opponents once again led by senior CB Briean Boddy-Calhoun who had 5 picks previous year.