Many times, it is not necessarily the two best teams who play in the title game but sometimes the team with the best schedule. With the Power Four conferences going to as many as 18 team leagues, who you play and who you miss is even more important.
The Big Ten plays a nine-game schedule which means some teams have five home games and four conference road games while the other half has only four home games and five Big Ten road games.
The fortunate teams with 5 home games are Wisconsin, Northwestern, Purdue, Washington, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois and USC.
The next category to look at is conference records from last year. The Big Ten plays nine conference game so each team’s foes added up to 81 games. When I do this the numbers should be equal for wins and losses, and they are at 729-729 so we know the math is right. .
In this category Wisconsin (who face the #1 overall toughest schedule in the country) face Big Ten foes who were 51-30 in Conference play last year then there is a good-sized gap down to Iowa which faces the 2nd highest winning percentage for opponents at 47-34 58%. Based on this method Michigan gets a huge break as their Big Ten foes were just 27-54 33.3% in conference play. The next closest is Illinois as their Big Ten foes were 33-48 40.7% last year in conference play.
The above category has some flaws. For example, in 2023 Washington was 9-0 and in the national title game. Last year due to the coaching change and graduation have just a shell of the team returning and lose their head coach. I pointed this out last year my power ratings had facing Washington, facing a middle of the road bowl team but using last years record teams got credit for facing a 9-0 team but Washington finished 4-5.
I have the chart color coded. Now, you may disagree with my ratings, but I have all my 9 sets of power ratings done and base the colors on my Power Poll. I have put the teams in four colors.
The top level of teams are the superpowers. I list those teams in Red for you do not want to play them. That top level category in no particular order is Ohio St, Michigan, Penn St and Oregon.
The next level are Purple teams. These are teams that are playoff contenders despite not being in the top category. These teams are Indiana, Illinois, USC, Iowa and Nebraska.
The next level is in Blue and they are teams that look like bowl teams or bowl caliber teams for this year.
The bottom level is Green for teams that you want to draw. Last year I had a Northwestern team down there that was 8-5 in 2023 and beat Utah in the bowl. I said keep in mind they were an underdog in 10 games last year and are a tough school to upgrade talent thru the portal. Some teams like Michigan St, UCLA, Maryland and Northwestern barely made this list as I could make a case for them in Blue but Purdue does look like they are in a rebuilding year and in my mind are a clear Green team.
Three teams draw 3 of the top 4 teams and they are Wisconsin, Northwestern, Rutgers and Washington. Last year Rutgers was the only team in the Big Ten that did not face Ohio St, Michigan, Penn St, Oregon or Iowa and this year face Ohio St, Penn St, Oregon and Illinois.
Four teams draw just one of the Superpowers and they are Oregon, Marland, Illinois and Michigan.
Here is the chart and here is how I grade this year’s CONFERENCE schedules, keep in mind non-conference games are not included in this strength of schedule.
I know many of you order the magazine in advance so that you can be the FIRST in the country to receive one. The VIP’s have had access to the digital version of the magazine since June 9th and we mailed out all VIP’s their magazine on June 11th.
When you purchase the VIP deal you get the magazine before it hits the bookstores, you get the digital magazine for FREE, you get 4 weeks of my Inside the Pressbox newsletter for FREE, and you get my FCS magazine for FREE as well. That is over $200 worth of football info for just $39.95. That deal closed on May 30th as it is the only way to ensure all our VIP got taken care of on time.
The VIP digital bonus was even better than expected once again as all VIP members had access to the magazine three days after we sent it to the press and were reading it for close to a full week before it was even printed (3 weeks before it hit the newsstand). Also, we did not open access to the digital magazine to anyone but VIP members for a full week after that! All VIP members had a full week of EXCLUSIVE ACCESS to the digital version!
I have opened a Second Chance VIP. There are a couple of minor differences in the Second Chance VIP. Naturally right now people that sign up for the digital or buy a magazine through us online all get immediate access to the digital version so you will not have the EXCLUSIVE access that the VIP’s had but you will have immediate access to the digital magazine.
The pre-May 30th VIP’s signed up well in advance (some in December) so they got that $39.95 price. Your price is still a great one and just a little more at $45 but you get over $200 worth of stuff included! The early bird does get the worm.
The VIP DEAL gets you FOUR free issues of my Inside the Pressbox Newsletter which sells for $20 per issue. The newsletter gives you my personal analysis of every game for the weekend and supplies you with my computer’s forecast for each game projecting each team’s rush yards, pass yards and points. Your second chance comes with 4 Free College Issues (Week 0, 1, 2, 3) plus one bonus NFL week the exact same that the pre-May 30th VIP’s receive.
The VIP DEAL also will get you my 2025 Phil Steele FCS magazine (digital only) FREE and this is a $25 value! This year there are 126 games between FCS and FBS teams and you can become an instant expert on all 128 FCS teams getting the magazine in much the same format as the FBS magazine. You get two FULL pages on EVERY FCS team! Keep in mind most states have legalized gambling, and they post numbers on FCS vs FCS games, and you will have remarkable line value on these games being an expert while the majority of folks know very little about the FCS teams.
To get my second chance VIP Click here.
Last year I added a SUPER VIP deal. The price is just $25 more or basically the cost of one magazine mailed to you. In the SUPER VIP you get TWO magazines and also access to Phil Steele Plus ($99) for a FULL year thru the Super Bowl! If you are thinking of subscribing to Phil Steele Plus again for 2025, just get the SUPER VIP deal and save $30 plus get two magazines and all the other bonuses. To get the SUPER VIP membership CLICK HERE> Click here to pre-order magazine. You can also order by calling 1-866-918-7711.
