Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - BIG 10 SQUAD: Big 10 is CRUSHING Preseason Polls | Where Iowa sits

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

Big Ten challengers slam SEC supremacy as preseason poll debate heats up. Can Michigan and Oregon silence doubters and reclaim conference bragging rights? The Big 10 Squad calls out SEC bias in the On3 preseason Top 25, question Florida’s ranking, and dissect how brand bias skews College Football Playoff perspectives. The team roasts Purdue Athletic Director Tommy McClelland’s bold jab at Indiana’s championship pedigree, with reactions spanning ridicule to strategy breakdowns. Plus, the spotlight shifts to Oregon’s daunting 10.5 win total—the hosts break down the Ducks’ season outlook, key matchups against Ohio State and USC, injury updates, and title-or-bust expectations for Dan Lanning’s squad. Don’t miss this spirited roundtable on Big Ten pride, preseason poll drama, and the true contenders for college football’s ultimate prize. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So on three released their preseason top 25. The SEC has nine teams. The Big Ten has eight. So according to them, we should just not play the season at all. Plus, Purdue's athletic director, I'm sorry. He said what? And it's Oregon's win total today. All that and more on a locked on big 10 squad. You're talking ball with the Big Ten squad. From USC to Ohio State from Michigan to Oregon, from Nebraska to Washington. It's the local experts of the Locked on podcast network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming Big Ten weekend. No hurt feelings and thin skin allowed. Squad up, you're part of the Big Ten Squad.

Welcome, and it is the Lockdown Big Ten Squad. I'm Jacob Goin's host of Lockdown Hoosiers hosting today because, well, Spencer said he didn't want to, internet problems, but it's also Oregon Win Total Day, and we couldn't let him host the show when we're talking about his team. We also have Craig Sheiman of Lockdown Big Ten here, Roman Thomasoff of Lockdown Huskies, and as I mentioned, Spencer McLaughlin of Lockdown Ducks today. That's the only show he does today. We have a lot to get to, darn right. Because, again, Oregon's win total, 10 and a half, according to our friends at Fandu.

We'll get there. We're down to two teams. Can you believe it we almost time this out perfectly with the start of college football? Plus, we have to react on the pod about what Purdue's athletic director said. I know it's been several days since it happened, but Craig and I are going to just tee off on this dude and let them have it for about 10 minutes. But we start today's show with On 3, putting out their preseason top 25, and the Big 10's got eight teams represented in it, guys, that's pretty good.

But Craig, the SEC has nine. So we may as well just hang it up, not play. They're the best. They're just the top dog. The SEC is just that good, huh? Is that what you think? I'm wondering what it is going to take to get SEC guy, SEC fan, SEC coaches to understand.

that they're the second dog, all right? What's it going to take? Do we have to win a fourth straight national championship in the Big Ten? And then they always go to the argument, well, the middle of the conference is better. Well, no, it's not head-to-head play, whether it be the playoffs where we sweep them, or we have a better record in the playoffs, or the dot-com bowl games, or head-to-head play, absolutely own them. So all they really have to hang their hat on is, well, okay, then maybe the bottom of our conference is better.

Well, who cares about the bottom? Nobody cares about that. So I don't know what's going to take, but every year we get these polls that come out. We'll get a couple of big 10 teams at the top and then all SEC. And then we'll throw in some big 10 teams at the end to kind of help balance it out a little bit. I'm almost done trying to explain to these SEC people that their second fiddle. Roman, please, my friend, chime in. Let me make it worse because somehow a whole bunch of SEC fans found last week's

squad show on my channel. And some of the comments that I got are just, were just straight up gold. One of them was Vanderbilt was ranked higher than most Big Ten teams. So the SEC is clearly better. And this from, from like the end of last year, the other one.

And I, I wish I could read the whole thing. I just don't want to give that person the time of day. Talked about how the SEC is so much better because it generates so many more viewers and that the Big Ten's are two spread around, which is just one of the most insane things I've ever heard. Ah, yes. that I you know I know Spencer and the ducks they're they're fighting for clicks over there

instead of wins but you know I'm sorry I had to get that one in there but um I it's it's we can't turn on ourselves Roman we can't I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry yes you can I will allow it I will allow it I will turn on I wouldn't turn on Craig you know he does he does a quality show I will turn on you two and Saco in two seconds we're no we're well aware of that can't turn on Saco he's not here that's just that character no why we Can we point out the Spencer's deluxe location waterfront in the woods? That is gorgeous. Before the show, though, we asked if we could come hang out with him.

And he told us no. Yeah, he did. Not on this trip. No, I'd invited my close friends to come this weekend. We didn't say this trip. We said in the future a lockdown retreat. And you were like, no, not you guys. We'll discuss it later at a, at a, at a.

later date. But yeah, this is not CGI behind me, just to be clear. Those are, those are actual Oregon Oregon trees. And there's an actual. This isn't CGI either. This is completely handmade by me, no artificial making whatsoever. So you didn't, you didn't use, you didn't use AI. Nope, I did not use the chat, uh, TPG at all whatsoever. Spencer, do you buy into preseason polls as much as I do, which is absolutely not doing it? They're fun to talk about. But do you put any stock into these? Well, as the season goes on, no. I'm going to be willing.

And I just put out my own top 25. You can check that out at Lockdown underscore CFB. And what my ranking is a reflection of is what I feel like all rankings, whether it's the AP of the College Football Playoff Committee's poll should be a reflection of. And that is what teams have actually earned. And going into a season, all you have earned to that point is the season prior and the off season. And that's what we have to evaluate you on. And I think giving fans a snapshot of where teams are likely to be

or where they're capable of being going into the year, I don't think that's the worst thing in the world. Where preseason polls go wrong, Jacob, is when media folks that vote on the AP or the college football playoff committee, whoever, when they get latched onto the preseason poll, and they'll say, well, I thought this team was going to be good going into the season.

Perfect example. South Carolina last year. I thought South Carolina was going to be good because they had a talented quarterback and they'd had a good season the year before. And they were terrible. They were flat out terrible. And yet I saw them pop up in, what was it, the ESPN, I think, FPI power rankings or some list like that. Yeah.

Yeah, my absolute favorite. But throw the top 25 back on the screen again. I could, but you're hosting the show. So you got to do it. Florida at 25 is a comical, laughable joke. I mean, there's no reason for them to be inside the top 25 there because they have not earned anything to be there. Now, if you want to have the subjective opinion that Florida is going to be a good team this year, that's perfectly fine. You can make that projection.

That is not how polls should be seen. That is not how polls should be used and treated because I think that leads to subjectivity coming into the sport rather than the results on the field. I mean, Tennessee being in there is not the most egregious, but I didn't have him in there. by the way, I'll be fair. Penn State shouldn't be in there either. They absolutely should not. I agree with that. They have to beat somebody real first. I don't think that should happen. But see, with that line of thinking, though, I think, and you said it at the beginning,

I just, I feel like you haven't earned anything. I feel like last year is completely separate from this year, even if you return 80% production or whatever number each team. You know what I mean? Like, that's, again, they're fun to talk about. Clearly, we're leading our squad show with it. But I just don't think. And to your point, Spencer, I think so many people who were in decision-making positions,

they do latch on to those. They latch on to the preseason top 25 in the AP poll. And they're like, well, Illinois was the ninth ranked team in the country when they came to Bloomington last year. You know what I mean? But at the end of the day, yes, Craig. Go ahead, Craig. Well, to talk about bias from the year before or even to the point what Spencer said, you earned it based.

We'd make these decisions based on what you did last year or maybe in the offseason. how many times would Ohio State maybe win a national championship and be your preseason number one or number two at worst every year. Indiana, seven, six. Six, but still not, I mean, should still be, should still be top five minimum. You know what I mean? Yeah, like that's that that that's a great example of what I'm talking about. Craig is the, the brand bias that still comes into play.

And the Hoosiers are still clearly fighting that. No one that is a major brand. Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, go down the list. Nobody at that level, Michigan would be a 16 and 0 national champion with the playoff resume that they had. They'd be the number one team. They'd be the number one team. And they should be.

Everyone should be looking up with them. Because guess what? Until proven otherwise on the field, everyone is looking up at them. What did Indiana do last year, gentlemen? What did they do the last game of the season? What did they do? I think they won that game, right? They did.

They beat someone because they went against Oregon twice, and they were so battle tested because of those trials and tribulations that they were able to beat everyone else. Yeah. The answer was they won a championship, but you can't tell Purdue. Oregon doesn't know what that's like. You're right.

Maybe that's what he meant to say was Oregon instead of Indiana, because this is probably the most outrageous comment I've ever heard of my life. We talk about it and we roast the guy next. But first, want to let you. you know that today is locked on Big Ten. A lot is brought to you by Banduel. Baseball fans, if you think you know who's hitting a home run today, Banduel is giving you a free chance to call your shot with Daily Dingers.

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That's FanDuel.com to play daily dingers and make your free pick on who is hitting a homer. play ball and swing for the fences on a fan to an official partner of the MLB. Craig, who is your favorite majorly baseball team? I'm a native Detroiter, so I'm all Detroit all the time. Oh, God. Is that sports across the board? Tommy Canley, my king. Tigers, red wings.

Oh, gosh. I'm so sorry. At least you got Indiana in your background. What did Spencer just say? Tommy Canley, my king. Yeah, I just had to watch that dude not remember how to throw his only pitch for the last like three months. I'm glad he's gone.

Yeah. Yeah. I love his change up, man. Yeah, but he's like 45 now. It's over. And when you know that that pitch is going to show up, you can rip it into right field and give me one of the most euphoric moments of my entire life.

That's a thing that happened. Oh, okay. That's right. He gave up that home run. That's right. No, it wasn't a home run. It was a walkoff single to right field. Roman,

do you follow baseball. Oh, just follow baseball. play one. Yeah, sometimes. You guys follow baseball. The amount of random jersey names that you guys were pointing out at the White Sox game, Chicago. That was a blast. It was pretty impactful. And I consider myself a pretty big baseball fan, but I was like these guys.

Esteban Loiza was a fun one. Yep. Bobby Jenks. Incredible. The Bobby Jenks jersey was incredible. I just want to say, I just want to say before we move on and talk about Purdue Athletic Director's quote, Some people stayed and got to see a walk off an extra.

Yeah, they did. Others left. It's pretty awesome. And I think that person is the reason. It's a great transition, Spencer, nicely done. Yes, Tommy McClellan. This is obviously news from several, several days ago. But I think this is the first time on the squad.

We're having a chance to sit down and react to it. He just decided that, you know, let's take a shot at Indiana, right? They're trying to make a statement, right? trying to get the fans all hyped up. I get it, right? But he says, if you want to win championships, don't go to Indiana. Guys, I don't know where it came from. I don't know how you defend it. I don't know what intern or daughter of his wrote that speech. I don't know. But that's just as bad as bad as it gets. Jay, can I go first here since I got a run and just to say? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Please, please do. Please do. Yeah, let's care to Roman. Educate yourself. Educate yourself.

educate yourself that's like it's crazy like i get like oh hey let's make a splash let's have some fun everybody knows yeah well again like if you don't if you don't know that i think that's a big problem for what the future might hold for peru and you know they're not necessarily in the best place to begin with right now outside of men's basketball so that's one of those things where how how are you going to sit up here and and say these sorts of things where again like yeah jacob you're right educating is is the bare minimum at this point in time. That's absolutely crazy. Also just want to say Oregon under 10 and a half crazy high line going 11 and 1.12. No, that's going to be really tough. Where are the losses? Where are the losses,

Roman? Ohio State. And I'm, I'm waffling back and forth on a couple of other ones. But, you know, it's not in my, my preseason predictions over on lockdown Huskies. Washington pulls the upset, Eugene. I'll see you guys. Bam. He throws the piece on and he's gone. Roman Thomas off of locked on huskies. Thank you for that guy. Craig, I know you have thoughts and you have talked about it on your show locked on Big Ten. I have obviously talked about it on my show, locked on Hoosiers. But like, man, where did this come from? And he's had to go on this whole basically, what do you, I guess how would you word that?

He's had to take it back. And he's on a tour across every microphone he can get in front of of like walk it back to it. That's what I was trying to say. And that's pretty bad as a guy who just got hired as the athletic director. There's two possibilities here. and neither are really good. The first one is maybe Kurt Signetti put pressure on everybody, not only to turn programs around right away,

but to make bold statements at press conferences, right? I mean, we all remember how Signetti took to the scene with Purdue sucks and all that stuff. Purdue sucks? It's not as Michigan and Ohio State. Yeah, nice, nice job. But my fear was when I heard it in real time, was that, oh, no, Purdue has just,

hired some egghead academic type that maybe really didn't know that Indiana was the reigning champion in football. And what a colossal mistake. That would be I mean, he came from Rice. Rice is a great academic school in Houston. They're horrible of athletics. Before that, he was at Vanderbilt,

I think, again, great at academics. So my fear was, oh my God, they hired somebody that knows nothing about sports. And I thought, okay, well, that'd be cool actually for an Indiana fan. But then like you said, he tried to walk it back. People got a hold of them. And he says he ad-libbed it. Now, the whole speech he gave was prepared.

I mean, he was reading from the script. I don't know if he ad-libbed that or not. I made an offhand unscripted comment about an in-state rival that didn't land well. I knew it the second it left my mouth as well. Yeah, exactly. I mean, let's hope that's the case because that's the best explanation. for him. Here's the other part of that.

I agree with you that that's the best explanation. It's still a horrible explanation. Dude, you can't come in to be. It's not like this is the president of the university. You know, there's always that conversation when a school hires a new president. Does this president care about sports? Is this president more concerned about academics

or are they forward thinking and all this sort of stuff? No, this is your athletics. director who just slip of the mind, Freudian slip, forgot that Indiana just won the national championship? I mean, it's so bad. It's so bad. And then, of course, Signetti gets asked about it, and he says no comment.

You can see Signetti looking like a serial killer in his eyes going, I'm going to beat them by 50 points. And they will. That game is in Bloomington this year, just for anybody that does. It's going to get out of hand. the aggregate score in the last two years between India. Say that again, Craig, for the people in the back.

122 to 3. We actually don't score this year. Yeah, that's the combined score in the last few years. Yeah, yeah. And then this guy says that. So after this year, that's going to be what, 200 to zero? And you know what? It would honestly be different.

It's going to be so bad. Purdue's going to score negative points for the first time ever. Purdue might not even show up. They might not even travel to Bloomington. and they might just wave the white flag. Just forfeit. I mean, if they had recently won a basketball title, because obviously we know in this state,

like basketball is still king. And if they had won a recent basketball title, sure, I get it. But you know the last title they won? I sent it in our group, Jed. I forget it was like 0.3 or 05. And it was women's tennis or something, which no disrespect. But it wasn't football and it wasn't men's basketball. So I don't know.

Now, I do want to say the one person in the entire world that actually supports the Purdue athletic director is our buddy Ryan Harrings of Lockdown Badgers, who cared so much about this topic, he didn't show up. But I did say that I would shout him out and give his vote of support. He said, please pass on my support of Purdue's

athletic director. He says that it was cool to come in hot with some swagger. Quote, they may think we are dumb, but at least they're talking about us. That's what Ryan says about Purdue. What happened to our lockdown Purdue guy? I haven't seen him in forever. Is he still

I wouldn't, yeah, oh, Nick, I wouldn't show my face right now either, man. I'd take a, I'd take a long vacation after that. Let's just say that. Man, I had some stuff come up. Personal matters. Don't ask me about it. Don't, yeah, do not disturb. So, yeah, that's probably what Tommy McClellan did too with his phone for a while.

But now that that's over, now we get to continue our win total fun. We're down to two teams. And we're not doing Indiana today because I'm hosting. That wouldn't be fun about Oregon. And the fact that there's only three of us means we get to go in depth on why Oregon goes over or under 10.5 wins. According to our friends at Fandau, we do that coming up next. But first, I want to let you know that today is locked on big 10th. What is brought to you by the games.

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I'm Jacob Goans of Lockdown Hoosers. Sheiman have locked on Big Ten and Spencer McLaughlin, who today is representing Locked on Ducks. And you will be last, my friend. I will go into it a little bit. Craig will also go into it a little bit and we'll let you tell us why Oregon goes over or under 10 and a half wins this season in college football. Craig, go ahead, my man. You are the Big Ten rep. You know every team in and out too deep.

Everybody walk-ons as well. tell us about the Oregon Ducks, my friend, over or under 10 and a half wins in 2026. Slam dunk over. I am so bullish on the ducks this year. I saw Spencer holding up the O. That might be zero for zero losses this year. I think you're good. Look, they got the tough games, you got Ohio State in Michigan back to back,

but you got Oregon, Ohio State's on the road. I think those are the only two trip ups. And then USC is going to come gunning for Oregon. That's a tough because it's at the Coliseum. And I think USC's entire season hinges on their ability to beat Oregon. It's what kept them out of the playoffs last year. It's the game they have to have this year. That's going to be a battle.

But ultimately, I think Oregon's the better team. I think they're loaded. I know the running back Davidson, who had 15 touchdowns last year, he got hurt. It's not a season ender, but, you know, kind of, sort of. maybe not really eight weeks, something like that. No, no, no. What do we got?

We don't know. But he practiced in full on Wednesday. Yeah. Was that after the injury or? Yeah, there was a little. What happened? There was a kerfuffle of sorts

digitally, not like a physical altercation or anything, but there was a little walking back of reports that were not, I know, I know the report that you're hinting at here, correct. Yeah. But this actually happened today as we're recording this show. I have been neck deep in all this for the past like four hours or so. Yeah.

Not expected to be anything significant and perhaps not coincidentally. Oregon put out a series of photos and videos from practice on Wednesday. it included one of Jordan Davison running through in full pads. Well, that's fantastic. It's not the great good guy not being hurt. That's not that they couldn't handle it. I mean, they're pretty deep at running back. But I'll just use that to kind of wrap up.

I think they're in great shape this year. And that's good news. It is. Yeah. No, it started out as looking like really bad news. And then it evolved a little bit as that's brutal. As the day went on. That was kind of a thing.

So Goans, Craig is a ball knower. Are you also a ball knower? Well, look, I am a ball knower. Now, whether you refer to me as that, we're going to find out into about 30 to 45 seconds. But look, there's a reason that Oregon is the pick by most people to win the national championship. And there's a reason that their win total is 10 and a half right there with Indiana.

And I wish the trip to Oklahoma State was better. Right. We all wish that Oklahoma State. And look, they could be by seasons in. with a new coach, quarterback, things like that. But week two is just not, they're not going to be ready for the physicality of the ducks. I don't, I'm not scared for them to go on the road to USC. Dan Landing is 10 times the coach that Lincoln Riley is.

So I'm not worried about that. UCLA, Nebraska, snooze fest at Illinois is interesting. Late Saturday in October, if it's a night game, it could be interesting. Northwestern, no. On the road at Ohio State, I'm going to give that a loss. But the rest of the schedule, I think they win it. Washington is a home game, right? and that's in Eugene. So yeah, I'm going to go over. I think 11 and 1 is very, very doable for the Ducks.

I think they'll be a top three team. I think they will be playing in the Big 10 championship game and they will be seeing the Indiana Hooters. I am very much hoping that your predictions are on the money. I'd take either one, 11 wins or 12 wins with this. Anything under the wind total is it a disappointment, Spencer? 10 and 2. Depends if they get into the playoff. I'll have. State went 10 and 2 and won the national championship. And at the end of the day, that is the only thing that matters for Oregon fans anymore to a large degree. And understandably so. And, you know, if they were to go 10 and 2 and let's say get shocked by Washington at home, but make the playoff and go on to win the whole thing, I think just, I think every Oregon fan would sign up for that because I doubt any Ohio State fan would trade the national championship for that win over Michigan in a year

where Michigan didn't make the college football playoff. And I think Washington will be good this year. They're in my preseason top 25. I don't think they're making the college football playoff this season. They're not ready for that. So I think that what Oregon has to do this year is not going to be defined in the regular season. And the ends will justify the means. If you go 12 and 0 and win it all, great.

If you go 10 and 2 and win it all, great. It's all about whether or not you win the whole thing. So I have not made an official record prediction yet. not going to. I will say that I am only torn between whether I'm going to pick them to win 11 or 12 games. I like the over, you know, the games, the games that I think they could easily lose. They're an underdog against Ohio State. USC is the game where they're going to be the slightest favorite. You could get caught in a trap game at Michigan State the way that you did against Wisconsin a couple years ago, short week of travel, long trip, nasty weather.

Washington in a rivalry game, anything could happen when rivals square off. Illinois could be sneaky tough. Maybe Michigan, I think Kyle Whittingham has got a lot of experience and a lot of really good experience as a coach, and he's got a good roster. I don't know if they're putting it all together this year, but yeah, you could feasibly lose any of those games. Oregon should win all but one in the regular season. And frankly, there will be some duck fans that expect Oregon to go 12 and 0. And with the way the roster looks, it's not an unreasonable expectation. It is title or bust in Eugene. Spencer has said it.

Every duck fan has said it. And Dan Lannning would probably say it. I don't know about every duck fan. But plenty of them have and they're not on unreasonable ground of doing so. Nope, not at all. So Oregon is done. That means next week's big 10 squad. We wrap it up and we get to talk about. the Hoosiers and how they will crush their over of 10 and a half. They'll find a way. Can you host next week? I'm going to be out sick.

No, sorry, can't. We'll be here. Actually, no, I will be here. I just won't be hosting. But no, great show today.

Thank you for you guys showing up. Thank you for everyone watching. Roman Tomashoff of Lockdown Huskies was here earlier. Spencer McLaughlin of Lockdown Ducks. Craig Sheiman of Lockdown Big Ten. I'm Jacob Goans of Lockdown Hoosers. Thank you for being here this week. We are back again next week.

So until then, stay safe. And we will talk to you later. Thank you.