The 3 teams that can cause the most chaos in the Big Ten in 2024

With the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, the now 18-team Big Ten conference fully expects at least three if not four representatives to play for a national championship. Ohio State and Oregon are the conference’s two favorites, checking in at No. 2 and No. 3 in the preseason AP Poll, and then Penn State and Michigan are the next tier of contenders at No. 8 and No. 9. 

If the season goes chalk then those four should waltz into the CFP, but in college football, the season hardly ever goes chalk, at least not completely. There will be teams who stir up the Big Ten conference this season, the important part is identifying which ones have the potential to cause the most chaos in the conference. 

With either a favorable schedule or plenty of opportunities to pull off an upset, these three teams are ones to keep an eye on in the Big Ten this year and could either take away a CFP spot from one of the four favorites or just keep them out altogether. 

When Jonathan Smith left Oregon State to take over in East Lansing, he couldn’t take his starting quarterback, but Aidan Chiles, his true freshman backup followed him. Chiles was a top 10 quarterback in the 2023 recruiting class and was one of the most highly sought-after players in the transfer portal this offseason. If Chiles can hit the ground running as a sophomore starting at Michigan State, then the Spartans could be a surprise team in the Big Ten this year. 

No, Michigan State isn’t going to be able to survive the gauntlet it was with Ohio State, Oregon, Iowa, and Michigan in back-to-back-to-back-to-back weeks, but maybe Chiles and Smith can take down one of those four teams and leave a serious black mark on their resume. 

Smith is a few years away from having a contender but with one of the more exciting young quarterbacks in the country, his team could cause plenty of chaos in Year 1. 

Purdue has the rest of the conference on perennial upset alert. The Boilermakers always seem to catch one of the Big Ten’s best teams in West Lafayette and at least give them a scare. After Jeff Brohm left to take over Louisville, Purdue took a big step back in the first season under Ryan Walters, only going 4-8. 

Despite the disappointing season, the Boilermakers proved to have a reliable quarterback in Hudson Card who is back for 2024, and the schedule sets up well. Both Oregon and Penn State make trips to West Lafayette and do so a week after massive games. Oregon hosts Ohio State in Week 7, then travels to Purdue for Week 8 in the ultimate letdown spot. The Nittany Lions will make their trip to play the Boilermakers just one week removed from the White Out Game against Washington. 

Walters needs a signature win to give his program momentum, and if Oregon or Penn State come to town a bit too comfortable, then he just might get it. 

 While Michigan State and Purdue don’t have any realistic shot of claiming a CFP spot for the Big Ten, Nebraska can make a serious case to be in the mix. In Matt Rhule’s first season, the Cornhuskers went 5-7, but the underlying numbers are a bit more promising. 

Nebraska had the 11th-best defense in the country, but couldn’t get any luck in close games, mostly because of the quarterback position. Jeff Sims began the year as the starter before he got benched for Heinrich Haarberg and both had the same problem, turnovers. Of Nebraska’s seven losses, five were by one score and the Cornhuskers were 132nd out of 133 teams in turnover margin at -1.4 per game. 

This offseason, five-star freshman Dylan Raiola decided to come to Lincoln to lead Rhule’s offense and if he’s simply functional and can hold onto the football, the Huskers can do some damage. Nebraska’s schedule starts with eight winnable games and six at home; vs. UTEP, vs. Colorado, vs. Northern Iowa, vs. Illinois, at Purdue, vs. Rutgers, and at Indiana. Rhule’s team could conceivably be 8-0 before a trip to Columbus to face Ohio State. 

Even with a loss to the Buckeyes, Nebraska would just have to split with UCLA, USC, Wisconsin, and Iowa to lock up a 10-win season and that could get them in the mix as a top 12 team in the country, or even a spot in the Big Ten Championship.