Big Ten Football: The 5 Biggest Trap Games of the 2016 Season
The Big Ten has sent a team to the College Football Playoff in each of the last two seasons, but to keep that streak alive in 2016, its top contenders will need to avoid these five trap games.
Michigan State will be susceptible thanks to an oddly placed nonconference matchup in early October. Ohio State will be vulnerable during a tough four-game stretch of prime-time games midway through the Big Ten season. Jim Harbaugh and Michigan, whose schedule is backloaded with conference heavyweights, have a sneaky matchup squeezed in between showdowns with Iowa and Ohio State.
None of these games will draw the biggest pregame interest, but they all have the ability to completely derail a Big Ten contender's season.
No. 5: North Dakota State vs. Iowa
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Why do FBS teams continue to tempt the college football gods by scheduling North Dakota State?
The FCS powerhouse has won college football's subdivision national championship in each of the last five seasons and is a perfect 4-0 against FBS teams since 2010, beating Kansas, Colorado State, Kansas State and Iowa State.
The Bison will come calling for another major program when they travel to Iowa City for a noon ET clash with the Hawkeyes, and they'll be loaded up and aiming for another shocking upset. They have all the pieces in place with 14 returning starters, which is the main reason they're the near-unanimous preseason No. 1 team in the FCS polls, according to the team's official website.
The timing of the game isn't great for the Hawkeyes, either—they'll have to try to dispatch the Bison just one week after their emotional rivalry match with Iowa State.
No. 4: Nebraska vs. Northwestern
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If Nebraska can navigate two tougher-than-they-look matchups against Fresno State and Wyoming and then manage to beat Oregon in a Week 3 showdown, it'll enter the Big Ten with a ton of momentum.
But that momentum would come to a screeching halt if it stumbles on the road at Northwestern in Week 4.
The Cornhuskers and the Wildcats have provided some remarkably close and entertaining games, with four of their five matchups as conference opponents producing a margin of victory of just 2.25 points. The Wildcats were victors in last year's game—a 30-28 affair—on their way to a breakout 10-3 season.
Despite that success, though, Northwestern was picked by media to finish fourth in the Big Ten West race, while Nebraska was pegged as Iowa's main competition for the division crown. That status could change quickly, though, if the Cornhuskers don't adjust quickly from Oregon's high-flying and fast-paced tempo to Northwestern's more methodical approach.
No. 3: BYU vs. Michigan State
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Michigan State's Week 3 showdown with Notre Dame gets all the attention, but its matchup with BYU three weeks later could spoil a potential College Football Playoff run.
Like the Irish, the Cougars have a pair of quarterbacks—Taysom Hill and Tanner Mangum—they'll rely on to keep the Spartans on their heels. In fact, it was Mangum who threw the miraculous 42-yard Hail Mary touchdown pass to Mitch Mathews in BYU's stunning 33-28 win over Nebraska to open the 2015 season.
But it's not just the Cougars' high-powered offense that will give Michigan State fits. BYU's defense is filled with veterans—it returns eight starters to a unit that ranked 23rd nationally in yards allowed per game.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
No. 2: Northwestern vs. Ohio State
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Ohio State has one of the most difficult schedules in all of college football in 2016, and during a four-week stretch that starts in mid-October, the Buckeyes will be playing under the lights in prime time.
The first two games of that stint will be on the road when the Buckeyes travel to Madison and Happy Valley for 8 p.m. ET showdowns with Wisconsin and Penn State, respectively. Traveling to two of college football's most hostile environments will be hard enough, but more danger will await the Buckeyes at home the following week when they host Northwestern.
The Wildcats return 12 total starters, which includes one of the nation's top running backs in Justin Jackson and a quarterback in Clayton Thorson who should take a big step forward in his second season as a starter.
The Wildcats will have plenty of firepower to keep up with the Buckeyes, and consensus first-team All-Big Ten linebacker Anthony Walker Jr. can almost single-handedly disrupt Ohio State's offensive flow.
No. 1: Indiana vs. Michigan
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Michigan almost fell in the Indiana trap last year, and it could happen again this fall.
Last November, head coach Jim Harbaugh and the 14th-ranked Wolverines invaded Bloomington, Indiana, to take on an overmatched 4-5 Hoosiers team. What should've been a blowout turned into a shootout as running back Jordan Howard ran wild for 238 yards and two touchdowns. It took two overtimes for Michigan to squeak out a 48-41 nail-biter.
Howard and do-everything quarterback Nate Sudfeld won't be back for Indiana, but by Week 12, their replacements should be settled in to head coach Kevin Wilson's system—a system that clearly works against Michigan's defense.
The Hoosiers will be catching the Wolverines at the exact right time, as well. Their showdown will take place in Michigan Stadium, but it will be sandwiched in between two of the Wolverines' biggest games of the season—road trips against Iowa and Ohio State.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
