Big Ten football: Can Ohio State, Ryan Day win it all?

By RJ Young
FOX Sports College Football Writer

Here are my top five storylines for the Big Ten heading into the 2022 college football season:

1. Will Ohio State and Ryan Day win their first national title together?

Despite Michigan winning both its first Big Ten title and earning its first victory over Ohio State since 2011, the Buckeyes are the team best positioned to win the 2022 Big Ten title.

With Heisman finalist CJ Stroud, running back TreVeyon Henderson and Heisman contender Jaxon Smith-Njigba forming the best offensive trio in the sport, Day has what he needs to field the most powerful offense in the conference, if not the nation.

Can Ohio State win it all?

Is this the year Ryan Day will lead the Buckeyes to a national title? RJ Young looks at what’s in store in Columbus.

The biggest question for the Buckeyes is can new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles put together a defense that rivals the one Jeff Hafley fielded in 2019? If so, there’s no reason Day and the Buckeyes can’t win their first national title together. 

2. Is the state of Michigan for real?

Michigan and Michigan State combined to go 23-4, feature in two New Year’s Six Bowl games, develop two NFL first-round picks and nine total NFL Draft picks.

Add to this Michigan beat Ohio State and both the Spartans and Wolverines beat Penn State, Michigan won the B1G title, and you can see The Great Lakes State enjoyed a banner year in 2021.

Ohio State, Michigan can compete for CFP

RJ explains why he thinks there are six teams in the Big Ten that can realistically compete for the College Football Playoff.

In 2022, the Spartans and Wolverines have a chance to prove they’re real contenders — not just for the league championship but the national one.

3. Is this the last stand of Scott Frost?

In 2021, the Huskers finished 3-9. Frost is just 10-25 against Big Ten competition and 15-29 in four years in Lincoln.

Along the way he has seen a change in athletic directors, picked up a show-cause order from the NCAA and accepted a 20% reduction in salary.

In response to the three-win season last year, Frost overturned half the offensive staff, added the man who produced first-round pick Kenny Pickett and reigning Biletnikoff Award winner Jordan Addison in offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, plus former LSU assistant and Nebraska alumnus Mickey Joseph.

Transfer quarterbacks Casey Thompson (Texas) and Chubba Purdy (Florida State), JUCO All-American running back Anthony Grant and LSU receiver transfer Trey Palmer add experienced talent to a team Frost needs to lead him to bowl-eligibility.

That’s what it might take to see Frost back at Nebraska for 2023.

Can Minnesota win the Big Ten West?

RJ Young breaks down which teams in the Big Ten will do better than their preseason win totals and which teams will fall short.

4. Will the Big Ten West (ever) produce a CFP selection?

The Pac-12 North has produced two more CFP selections than the Big Ten West, which has yet to produce one at all.

However, Wisconsin, Iowa, Purdue and Minnesota are all good enough to win the B1G West and the conference title. 

They each have returning head coaches, experienced starting quarterbacks, strong running games and good enough defenses to make history this season. If any of those four teams catch fire, the Big Ten could make history with its CFP selection coming from the perceived weaker division.

5. Is this the year the Big Ten gets two teams into the CFP?

Probably not.

But if each division managed to produce an undefeated or one-loss winner, the B1G could become just the second conference in the history of the sport to produce two CFP selections in the same season.

The return of running back Mohamed Ibrahim to the Golden Gophers, Braelon Allen to the Badgers and the emerging talent of true freshman running back Nick Singleton at Penn State will make this quest for two B1G teams in the four-team playoff interesting, especially if all three manage to come out firing.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The No. 1 Ranked Show with RJ Young.” Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young, and subscribe to “The RJ Young Show” on YouTube. He is not on a StepMill.