Welcome to March, the time when spring practice begins and focus is officially turned toward the upcoming season.
This edition of looking ahead includes trying to understand what the sport will look like. The Big Ten now includes 18 teams, the College Football Playoff has expanded to 12 teams and Wisconsin’s place among both is unknown.
Related: Wisconsin football’s biggest questions entering spring practice
Will the Badgers ascend to the space currently occupied by Penn State? Will the program become a Playoff regular as the field continues to expand? Head coach Luke Fickell has questions to answer entering year two of his tenure in Madison.
Looking ahead to the season, we’ve already ranked all 18 programs in the Big Ten, ranked the 18 starting quarterbacks, ranked all 18 head coaches, predicted each Big Ten team’s 2024 record, looked at the early College Football Playoff tiers and checked in on the Las Vegas win totals for each team in the conference.
Now, here are our pre-spring bold predictions for the 2024 Big Ten football season:
Nebraska flirts with the title game
Nov 11, 2023; Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Matt Rhule during the third quarter against the Maryland Terrapins at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dylan Widger-USA TODAY Sports
Alright, let’s start with a big one.
Nebraska returns after a 5-7 first season under Matt Rhule with a ton of optimism toward the future. First, the program landed top quarterback Dylan Raiola to lead the team for years to come.
Second, the schedule allows for a big 2024. Nebraska avoids Michigan, Oregon and Penn State. It starts its conference schedule with five of six winnable games, then a final stretch that still isn’t a gigantic challenge.
Nebraska could be 8-1 entering the final few weeks of the season if things fall right, meaning it could…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/pre-spring-bold-predictions-2024-120114872.html
Author : Badgers Wire
Publish date : 2024-03-04 12:01:14
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