Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

That’s because the Big Ten kicks off its coronavirus-delayed season. One could argue the Big Ten is the nation’s most popular league – calm down, SEC fans – simply because most of its schools have such huge numbers of alumni (Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State and Wisconsin in particular) and are near major cities like New York, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland/Cincinnati, Pittsburgh/Philadelphia and Baltimore/Washington, D.C. among a few others.

The first conference game of 2020 is Illinois at No. 14 Wisconsin on Friday at 8 p.m. ET with the Badgers the favorites to repeat as West Division champions. However, they begin life without record-setting running back Jonathan Taylor, now a rookie with the Indianapolis Colts. In addition, starting QB Jack Coan had foot surgery two weeks ago and is out indefinitely. Redshirt freshman Graham Mertz is now No. 1 on the depth chart. Wisconsin is -19.5 and the home team is 4-0 ATS in the past four meetings.

The best player returning in the Big Ten is clearly Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields, who was third in the 2019 Heisman Trophy voting and among the favorites this year. The No. 5 Buckeyes have appeared in three straight Big Ten championship games and won each of them. They are heavy favorites to do so again as well as 27-point favorites for Saturday’s noon home game against unranked Nebraska. OSU is on a 19-game home winning streak, taking those by an average of 31.8 points.