Welcome to a new episode of Land-Grant Holy Land’s I-70 podcast. On this show, we talk about all things Big Ten football and basketball. After every week of action, we will get you caught up on all the conference’s games and look ahead at the matchups, storylines, and players that you should be paying attention to in the next week. My name is Jordan Williams, and I am joined by my co-host Dante Morgan.

The NFL playoffs are in full swing! Dante and Jordan take a moment to discuss this weekend's games before getting into the Big Ten season recap. Daniel Jones and the New York Giants had a great season but they ran into the buzzsaw known as the Philadelphia Eagles. Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs past the Jaguars and Trevor Lawerence but suffered a high ankle sprain in the process. That could have lasting effects, which could mean bad news with Joe Burrow and the Bengals coming into town next week. 

It’s the offseason and we’re a couple of weeks removed from the season so now is the perfect time to review the season and re-rank teams into our tiered system. This week we start with tier one which includes Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State. Tier one was the easiest tier to complete, there were only three teams in the conference who won more than ten games and their only losses were to each other. Michigan finished the season 9-0 in conference beating Penn State and Ohio State and winning the Big Ten for the second season in a row. Ohio State suffered another loss to Michigan but made the playoffs coming within a missed field goal of beating national champion Georgia Bulldogs. 

Penn State won ten games behind a resurgent run game led by freshman running backs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen. In quarterback Sean Clifford’s last season of eligibility, the Nittany Lions couldn't reach the mountaintop but they bounced back from a couple of down seasons setting the foundation for the 2023 season. These three teams were the class of the conference separating themselves from the rest of their peers. 2022 was not a banner year for the conference as a whole but between these three teams, there were two college football playoff participants and the winner of the Rose Bowl. The top of the conference is as strong as its ever been. 

Connect with us on Twitter:

Jordan: @JordanW330

Dante: @DanteM10216

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