Ohio State’s Top Competition in First Year of 18-Team Big Ten

The Big Ten will officially expand to 18 teams next week.Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA will officially become members of the conference on Monday, bringing in a new era for what’s traditionally been a Midwest-based conference. From a football standpoint, the Big Ten’s newest round of expansion should immediately make the conference more competitive as Oregon enters 2024 as a major College Football Playoff contender while Washington is the defending national runner-up and USC has a history of competing for championships.With that in mind, we thought this week would be a good time to take a look at how the Big Ten stacks up entering the 2024 season with a focus on the conference’s new teams and the teams that we expect to be Ohio State’s toughest competition for the conference title this year.Both of us agree that Oregon will be Ohio State’s biggest challenger for the Big Ten championship this year while Penn State and Michigan round out the conference’s top tier of teams entering the 2024 season. Iowa, USC, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Rutgers – yes, Rutgers – are among the teams to watch in the second tier of the conference while Washington and Indiana are other teams we’ll be keeping an eye on in the Big Ten this year.We spent the first 42-minutes of the show breaking down Ohio State’s competition in the Big Ten before concluding this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesday with some discussion about what’s been a very successful month of June for Ohio State on the recruiting trail.The rundown for this week’s show:0:00 Intro1:25 Expansion Sacrifices Regionality But Makes Big Ten More Competitive12:36 Oregon Will Be A Major Big Ten Contender in Year One15:57 Penn State Has the Third-Best Roster in the Big Ten18:38 Michigan Should Take A Step Back But Can’t Be Overlooked22:55 USC Unlikely to Be Big Ten Championship Contender Right Away25:49 Iowa, Nebraska Among Second-Tier Teams That Could Make Noise29:11 Thanks to Schedules, Rutgers Could Finish Ahead of Wisconsin33:32 Washington Lost A Lot of Talent But Shouldn’t Be Written Off35:36 Indiana Has Potential to Make A Jump Under Curt Cignetti36:39 Our Big Ten Championship Game Prediction39:09 Our Big Ten Picks to Make the CFP41:21 Why Ohio State vs. Michigan Could Have Very High Stakes on Both Sides42:38 Ohio State is “Cooking” on the Recruiting Trail43:59 Ryan Day Building His Best Defensive Recruiting Class46:46 David Sanders Jr. is the Recruit Ohio State Must Land51:26 Justin Hill, Dorian Brew, Defensive Tackles Among Ohio State’s Other Priorities55:39 Taking More Chances on In-State Prospects Can Pay Off for Ohio State