USA TODAY Sports predicts 2026 Big Ten football order

The gold standard of preseason Big Ten media polling has long been the annual Cleveland.com poll , which is released on the eve of Big Ten media days every year for the past 16 years. But the mothership is jumping into the fray in attempting to prognosticate the top schools in the conference.

USA TODAY Sports polled several writers within the network, including a few national and regional writers, and the 15 analysts predicted an order of finish not too different in the top 11, but the bottom half of the order is a bit more murky, as it differs from the Cleveland.com poll from 12-18.