Ohio State Football: Odds could be wrong about Big Ten winner

For the longest time, the Ohio State football team was chosen as the default winner in the Big Ten by the media in preseason. That made sense considering how talented they were. In fact, in seven of the previous eight seasons, Ohio State was the odds-on favorite to win the conference.

What’s interesting about that is Ohio State only won the Big Ten as a preseason favorite three times over that span. That means five other times, the odds were wrong. That includes in 2018 when TTUN was favored to win the Big Ten but the Buckeyes ended up winning it.

So what does that say about the preseason odds this year? According to FanDuel, Michigan is the favorite to win the Big Ten at +180. They are also ranked higher than the Ohio State football team in both the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll. I’ve said that all of these things are deserved.

But history tells us that another Big Ten champ could emerge. Ohio State is the best team in the conference besides TTUN and has the best chance to usurp its throne. Of course, that would mean that the Buckeyes would have to beat TTUN in The Game for the first time in three years.

Maybe it’s a good thing that Ohio State is favored to win the conference. Maybe they can use this underdog role to their advantage. I know that Ryan Day needs to make sure his team feels that way. He’s been feeling some heat from fans during the offseason.

This is a critical season for him and the rest of the coaching staff. I think Ohio State should lean into being underdogs as much as they can and let that motivation fuel them. They have all the talent in the world, they just have to put it together.