Big Ten Football: Predicting the Most Important B1G Games in 2015
As our attention turns to the fall and the start of the 2015 college football season, there are going to be a few Saturdays you'll want to block off on your calendar.
With the Big Ten's recent resurgence, big games in the conference also mean big games from a national standpoint. Here, we've put together a list of those games so you can let everyone know well in advance that your schedule on these days is already booked.
As defending national champions, Ohio State is certainly going to be the team to watch this season, and every game in which the Buckeyes play will be important. So, too, will be games featuring Michigan State, another likely preseason Top 10 program.
But don't be fooled into thinking the Big Ten is a two-team race this season. There will be plenty of headline-grabbing games in 2015 spread across both divisions of the conference.
So which games are can't-miss blockbuster Big Ten tilts in 2015? We're glad you asked.
October 17: Penn State at Ohio State
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We started out by mentioning how Ohio State games are going to be very important this season, so why not start out with a contest involving the Buckeyes?
This game is important for Ohio State for poll ranking and the opinion of the College Football Playoff selection committee, but let's not use those reasons as excuses to gloss over the Big Ten implications.
First off, there's the classic border rivalry between Penn State and Ohio State. Both programs recruit heavily in the other's home state, and the proximity between the two schools (about 300 miles) lends to a natural rivalry.
Ohio State leads the all-time series, 17-13, but Penn State has won two of the last four in Columbus. A win for Ohio State this season would be expected, and it would be business as usual moving forward for the Buckeyes. A win for Penn State, on the other hand, would be the next step in the school's progression under James Franklin.
Recruits—not just in the area, but across the nation—would take notice of a Nittany Lions victory in Columbus, and it could ignite the next iteration of great recruiting in State College.
September 3: Michigan at Utah
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We'll step out of conference play for our next important Big Ten game of 2015. In Week 1, Michigan heads out west to take on the Utah Utes. Michigan has played Utah just three times, and the Utes have won twice (the two most recent meetings, in 2008 and 2014).
This will be the Wolverines' first visit to Utah, as all three previous meetings have been at the Big House.
So what makes this opening-week matchup so important? In case you've been living in a cave, Michigan has hired prodigal son Jim Harbaugh to take over the once-mighty—but now struggling—program.
Instantly forgotten in Ann Arbor are Harbaugh's not-so-kind comments about Michigan's academics as it relates to football athletes:
"College football needs Stanford. We're looking not for student-athletes, but scholar-athletes. No other school can carry this banner. ... Other schools which have good academic reputations have ways to get [academically] borderline athletes in and keep them in. Michigan is a good school, and I got a good education there, but the athletic department has ways to get borderline guys in and, when they're in, they steer them to courses in sports communications.
"
Ka-boom.
Lloyd Carr called Harbaugh arrogant and elitist. Mike Hart said Harbaugh was not a true Michigan Man for making those comments. But barely seven years later, that same arrogant, elitist, non-Michigan Man is the head coach at Michigan.
And in the spirit of "football is king" and "winning cures all ills," a win over Utah, a nine-win team out of the Pac-12 from 2014, would energize the Wolverines fanbase and give Michigan some momentum to start the season—two things Michigan needs, and two things Michigan hasn't had in a while.
October 17: Michigan State at Michigan
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If you simply looked at the all-time series between these two in-state rivals, you'd see a lopsided 68-34-5 lead for Michigan (or a .659 win percentage). However, if you looked at the games just since 1984, you'd get a different picture. Over that span, Michigan is 18-13 (or .581) against the Spartans.
Additionally, where it matters most—recent history—Michigan State has been dominant, winning six of the last seven meetings.
Michigan fans will invariably come up with one excuse after another for the recent slump against Sparty, just as MSU fans have excuses for Michigan's run of six straight wins between 2002 and 2007. But we're looking ahead to 2015, as the past won't have any bearing on which team competes for a conference title this fall.
For Michigan State, the importance is obvious. Win, and the Spartans can continue to march toward what should be their impending showdown with Ohio State for supremacy of the East Division. Lose, and the Big Ten title will most likely fade from view.
A loss would undoubtedly also bring forth at least 12 months worth of ridicule from Michigan fans who will relish the opportunity to mock MSU fans with a variation on "Michigan is the dominant program in the state."
For Michigan, a much-needed win over MSU would be another big step in the first year of the Harbaugh era. Everyone is looking forward to Harbaugh versus Meyer, but Harbaugh versus Mark Dantonio could be equally as entertaining, especially given each coach's affinity for his respective school.
Salary-wise, Dantonio ($5.6 million) and Harbaugh (which averages up to $5.4 million over the seven-year deal) are close peers. Record-wise, Harbaugh (58-27, or .682) and Dantonio (93-48, or .660) are also pretty darn close. So what's going to separate the two coaches and their programs moving forward?
Probably not much.
We expect this series to turn into a great back-and-forth battle between neighbors, and the winner of this bout every season will not only have bragging rights in the Great Lakes State, but the inside track to dethrone Ohio State for the East Division title.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
September 5: Wisconsin vs. Alabama (Arlington, TX)
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Two years after Bret Bielema bolted Wisconsin for what was, at best, a lateral move to Arkansas, Gary Andersen has likewise skipped town, this time for Oregon State—an inarguable step down in the world of coaching.
The first game of a new coaching tenure—in this case, Paul Chryst's—is always important. It sets the tone for the rest of that first season, and it can be an important barometer against which incoming recruits can judge the future of the program.
In this case, Chryst's first game as the Badgers head coach is given even more importance based on the opponent: the Alabama Crimson Tide.
The Tide have long seen themselves (as many others have) as the class of the SEC. Nick Saban is perhaps the highest-paid public employee in the nation, and the plethora of championship hardware flowing into Tuscaloosa has certainly made this a golden era of Alabama football.
A win over the mighty Crimson Tide would not only start the 2015 season off with a bang, it could signal to the nation that the Big Ten is ready to take over the mantle as college football's premier conference.
Heck, even a hard-fought, close loss could work in Wisconsin's favor here. If the Badgers can show that they're close to championship form in Chryst's first game, it might very well mean a blindingly bright future for Wisconsin before long at all.
October 10: Wisconsin at Nebraska
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In the West Division, there really are two teams that have separated themselves from the pack. Nebraska and Wisconsin are the early favorites to tangle again for the divisional crown, and while Iowa and Minnesota will certainly have their say, don't be surprised if this early conference game sets the pace for the division the rest of the way.
In essence, the winner of this game will have a loss to give, meaning the victor could still lose later in the season and own the head-to-head tiebreaker against the loser.
While it's tough to call an October game a do-or-die, de facto division title game—especially with Iowa and Minnesota lurking—the loser of this game will be forced to play catch-up for the remainder of the 2015 season.
November 7: Michigan State at Nebraska
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Despite losing the first five nonconference meetings with Nebraska, Michigan State has gone 2-2 against the Huskers in Big Ten play, and it outscored Nebraska 41-28 during its last trip to Lincoln (2013).
Nebraska will be just one of a host of Big Ten programs with a new head coach this season, and this last-season conference showdown between two conference heavyweights could be an indicator of things to come under Mike Riley.
These are the kind of losses that led to Bo Pelini's ouster, and Nebraska needs to wipe these off of its record to move closer to winning its first conference title since joining the Big Ten (and first since 1999).
A win for Nebraska against what could be a Top 10 MSU squad would be monumental. A loss for Michigan State, however, would be nothing short of disastrous. This game comes two weeks before the East Division showdown with Ohio State, and a loss to Nebraska could deflate the Spartans right when they can afford it least.
November 21: Michigan State at Ohio State
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Last season, both of these teams finished in the final AP poll's Top Five. With a combined record of 25-3, Michigan State and Ohio State represented the Big Ten as the nation's best one-two combination of conference teams in terms of win percentage (the Big 12, with TCU and Baylor, was 23-3).
So it's reasonable to assume that OSU and MSU will enter the 2015 season with a truckload of expectations and lofty rankings to match.
Unfortunately, we have to wait until the regular season's penultimate weekend to see these two teams tangle in what could be a play-in game for the Big Ten Championship Game.
Ohio State returns a metric ton of talent, while Michigan State is similarly loaded with experienced players. The Spartans return 14 starters from 2014, including four All-Big Ten honorees and All-American center Jack Allen. The Buckeyes also return 14 (while counting the three quarterbacks with starting experience as one).
The Buckeyes obviously want to return to the College Football Playoff to defend their national championship. Sparty, on the other hand, got a taste of the CFP last season, but only on the fringes, playing in the committee-selected Cotton Bowl Classic.
The next step for MSU is an obvious one, but it necessitates a win over an Ohio State squad that should be favored in every game it plays.
If familiarity breeds contempt, there should be no love lost between the Spartans and Buckeyes, who seem to play against one another in big game after big game. This fall's installment won't be any different. We can't wait.
With Big Ten—and quite possibly national—championship implications on the line, the 2015 edition of Michigan State versus Ohio State rounds out our prediction list for the most important Big Ten games of 2015.
Follow Bleacher Report National College Football Featured Columnist David Luther on Twitter.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
