Join the celebration Final Big Ten football power rankings for the 2025 season: A king is crowned
The longest college football season in history is over, and if you are an Ohio State fan, it had some peaks and valleys, but the team finished on top of the mountain by winning the College Football Playoff National Championship game vs. Notre Dame to reach its ultimate goal.
Before the historical run by the Buckeyes, it sure looked like Oregon was the dominant team to beat, and that Penn State and Indiana were also in there in the upper division of the league. Teams like Michigan and Minnesota finished strong, while Purdue and Maryland were likely ready to turn the page about three months ago.
There were some surprising results by where teams landed and in games on a week-to-week basis and we tried to follow it all by looking at the pecking order, better known as our Big Tenfootball power rankings on a weekly basis. Now that the dust has settled and we know exactly what teams did in the postseason, we’re ready for one more effort to determine how those power rankings look one final time.
Here’s a look at our final Big Ten football power rankings one last time for the 2024 season, just after a conference team took home a national championship trophy for the second-straight year.
18 Purdue Boilermakers
Final Record
1-11 (0-9)
Why the Ranking
Purdue fans forgot about the game of college football as soon as the preseason basketball rankings came out. That’s because the Boilermakers one the first game of the year then didn’t taste victory the remainder of the way. You know what they say about programs that have big drums …
17 Maryland Terrapins
Final Record
4-8 (1-8)
Why the Ranking
We always thought it would be a tough year after losing quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa, but nobody thought it would be this bad. The Terps still have a problem once they enter Big Ten play but have yet to figure it out. Things got worse this year with just one conference win.
Final Record
4-8 (2-7)
Why the Ranking
The Wildcats came crashing back down to reality after a surprising 2023 when they somehow made their way to a bowl game after a tumultuous offseason. However, the talent gap is evident and until head coach David Braun can get that figured out, things are going to be an uphill battle.
Final Record
5-7 (3-6)
Why the Ranking
It sure looked like the Badgers were headed to a decent bowl early in the season, but perhaps no other team in the Big Ten took a nose dive more than Wisconsin as it limped to the finish line of the season. Five-straight losses to end the year threaded the needle toward missing the postseason, and now there are a lot of questions in Madison.
14 Michigan state spartans
Final Record
5-7 (3-6)
Why the Ranking
Things will probably get better over the next few years as new head coach Jonathan Smith sets his culture and roster, but this year’s team sure seemed to underperform for the talent on hand. The Spartans surprised some folks earlier in the conference but then finished the season by losing four of their last five.
13 Nebraska Cornhuskers
Final Record
7-6 (3-6)
Why the Ranking
Nebraska was ranked early in the season and looked like it was going to have an earlier than expected turnaround season under head coach Matt Rhule. However, things went south on the back end of the schedule with the Cornhuskers losing five of their last six. A win against Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl keeps Nebraska from sliding further down these power rankings and adds a little momentum to next year.
12 Washington Huskies
Final Record
6-7 (4-5)
Why the Ranking
The thought was that new head coach Jed Fisch would be able to reload using the transfer portal last season, but it was a pretty steep decline from a national championship game appearance to what we saw this year. All in all, losing five of your last seven, including a close loss to Louisville in the postseason has the arrow pointed down to end the year for Washington.
11 Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Final Record
7-6 (4-5)
Why the Ranking
Rutgers started out on a hot streak in 2024, hit a significant lull in the middle, then picked itself back up at the end of the year for a weird college football schedule sandwich. A loss in the postseason to Kansas State left things on the sour end, but there continue to be positive signs of a program on the mend under head coach Greg Schiano.
10 UCLA Bruins
Final Record
5-7 (3-6)
Why the Ranking
At one point, we had UCLA dead last in our weekly power rankings, but boy did the Bruins show improvement during the finishing kick of the season. In fact, UCLA won four of its last six games with wins over the likes of Iowa and Nebraska. It almost found a way to get off the mat and become bowl-eligible but instead will have to use the momentum at the end of the season to springboard into a better 2025.
9 USC Trojans
Final Record
7-6 (4-5)
Why the Ranking
Maybe the biggest knee jerk reaction after Week 1 of the season involved USC when it beat LSUand made everyone think the Trojans were a national contender. We quickly found out that USC’s offense was too inconsistent to be anywhere near that and the Trojans had to work hard just to make a bowl game where it finished with a win over SEC foe, Texas A&M. It’s time for head coach Lincoln Riley to start showing he’s the answer there in L.A.
8 Iowa Hawkeyes
Final Record
8-5 (6-3)
Why the Ranking
It was a pretty typical Iowa year where the Hawkeyes won a decent amount of games but found a way to lose a few many thought it should win. The schedule lined up nicely to end the season, but Iowa lost at UCLA and against Missouri in the Transperfect Music City Bowl in two of its last four games to keep from 2024 being an even better season. We can probably expect much of the same next year because the Iowa program is about as vanilla as you can get.
7 Minnesota Golden Gophers
Final Record
8-5 (5-4)
Why the Ranking
After losing three of its first five games, the Gophers ended the season winning six of its last eight including wins over Illinois and a postseason win vs. Virginia Tech. P.J. Fleck doesn’t typically field a flashy team, but year after year, the Gophers seem to punch over their weight, and that’s the same as what we saw in 2024.
6 Illinois Fighting Illini
Final Record
10-3 (6-3)
Why the Ranking
I have to admit, I thought Bret Bielema’s second stint in the Big Ten was set up for failure, but he’s shown that his brand of ball is still alive and well. Illinois experienced one of the underappreciated years in all of college football and at some point you have to give credit where credit is due. The Illini finished the season on a tear too, winning its last four games including a win over South Carolina in the Cheez-it Citrus Bowl.
5 Michigan Wolverines
Final Record
8-5 (5-4)
Why the Ranking
Surprised? We have to recognize a team that finished the season strong no matter who it is and Michigan was significantly improved as the season got longer in the tooth. The Wolverines finished the season with three straight wins that included victories over eventual national champ Ohio State and SEC titan Alabama in the Reliaquest Bowl. That’s worthy of a bump up in the power rankings.
4 Indiana Hoosiers
Final Record
11-2 (8-1)
Why the Ranking
Even the most hardened Indiana critic can’t ignore how dominant Indiana looked at times this season. Yes, the Hoosiers might have benefitted from a fairly easy schedule, but it administered beatdowns against opponents not named Ohio State or Notre Dame. It’s clear there was still a talent gap against elite teams, and head coach Curt Cignetti will have to live with being the worst Big Ten team to make the College Football Playoff. Still, quite the year in Bloomington.
3 Penn State Nittany Lions
Final Record
13-3 (8-1)
Why the Ranking
Penn State lost just just two games against Big Ten foes, and that’s the two teams you’ll see above the Nittany Lions in these power rankings. James Franklin steered his team to the semifinal of the College Football Playoff, but that was more a product of the path in the postseason than anything else. It was another very, very good year, but still lacking elite status. Watch out for this team next season though.
2 Oregon Ducks
Final Record
13-1 (9-0)
Why the Ranking
It sure looked like Oregon was the class of the league and potentially the entire country all the way into the College Football Playoff as the No. 1 seed. The Ducks won the Big Ten and beat Ohio State and Penn State along the way. However, Oregon ran into the Buckeye Blitz in the quarterfinals of the CFP in the Rose Bowl and it was clear which was the better of the two teams when it mattered the most. Nike U is still looking for the illusive first national championship.
1 Ohio State Buckeyes
Final Record
14-2 (7-2)
Why the Ranking
National champions. What else is there to say? There was some heartbreak and slight underachieving in a couple of games during the season, but once Ohio State got into the CFP, it beat four-straight top ten teams by double digits to show that it was the best team in the Big Ten and the entire country. We may never see a team go on such a run again, and the result is a clear No. 1 on our final Big Ten football power rankings. Now, what about next year?
Be the first to comment