A Big Ten 2026 Preview: We'll Be Shining Everywhere

I'm a convert here.

I didn't grow up as a college football fan. I came to my college football fandom later than most and lost it for a bit. I didn't really give a shit until I started to consider attending Illinois like my dad did. Unfortunately, the best Illini sports years of this century probably occurred while I was in middle and high school (2004-2007, give or take). I went to games and followed the teams in college, but afterward? Life gets in the way.

It turns out that focusing on grad school and one's limited career prospects in the midst of the worst stretch of Illini football and basketball really does put a damper on sports fandom. 2013-2018 were pretty rough. When I came back to this world, I returned without the decades of lore, but I'm here because I love it as zealously as only a convert can.

I came back to it fully through my wife, the lovely and Ohio State-crazed OhioOtter, who will forget more about college football that I will ever know. I returned to the college football and basketball world in the rebirth of the Illini fanbase in 2018-2019. We had Ayo doing Ayo things, looking every bit the promised restorer of a moribund program. We knocked off Wisconsin on a walk-off field goal, dogpiled our Irish kicker James McCourt, and nearly asphyxiated him in the process. God, the 9OT game with Penn State. I will never forget the anxiety, the stress, the elation when that thing finally ended. It was a glorious turn. We were shining everywhere.

I joined this silly OTE/OTR club in the end-stage of an era, when the college sports world was already falling apart and breaking down. If I were a rational actor, that should probably have been dissuading. But alas, collegiate sports aren't for the rational. In the midst of the rampant commercialization, the CFP expansion debates, the NIL changes, the portal transfers, the lawsuits and the unionizations and all of it, one thing remains: fandom. There's a reason that I decided to beg MNWildcat for a writing job at OTE in the midst of this decline: I like telling stories of fandom and legends and lore to you wonderfully strange folks. I love it.

But, with all of that as a monstrously long preamble and with my limited bona fides established: what is the point of this? What's the point of any of this?

It's the rivalry.

It's the good-natured but fully-felt hatred for Those Guys Over There. It's what existed well before the bloated, overstuffed conferences and the ridiculous governance structures and the sloshing money pits. It what will remain when all of that inevitably floats away. It's the distilled reason as to why we watch. It's nostalgia, it's local, it's familial, it's regional. It's well-intentioned grudge.

It's also, if we're being honest, for editorial convenience. You're not going to believe this, but this place is kind of a bare-bones operation. Focusing on the rivalry is a wonderful way to shine a light on every part of this monstrous conference that extends across the length of this country. A preview week on every one of the 18 teams? Good lord. But a week on each of the 9 rivalries? Yeah, that's at least mostly doable. And it spotlights all of the pieces of the fandoms that make up this once-Midwestern, now continent-spanning collection that we call home.

If you're still reading (good god, what's wrong with you?), here's what we promise to you: from next week to late August, we'll preview the upcoming season, recap last year's games, field some mailbag questions, shoot the shit about some regional food and drink, and generally talk smack about all 18 teams in the Big Ten conference, all in the context of the rivalry.

We're running the preview series in reverse order of each rivalry's collective conference wins. Let's get to it. And sorry to Rutgers and Maryland, but maybe win more games next season?

6/22-6/26: Atlantic Week (Rutgers/Maryland) (3 wins)
6/29-7/3: Land Grant Week (MSU/PSU) (4 wins)
7/6-10: Axe Week (Wisconsin/Minnesota) (7 wins)
7/13-19: Hat Week (Illinois/Northwestern) (9 wins)
7/20-25: Bell Week (UCLA/USC) (10 wins)
7/27-31: Corn Week (Nebraska/Iowa) (10 wins)
8/3-7: Cascadia Week (Oregon/Washington) (13 wins)
8/10-14: The Game Week (Ohio State/Michigan) (16 wins)
8/17-21: Bucket Week (Indiana/Purdue) (9 wins, but CHAMPS)