Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - BIG 10 SQUAD: ESPN has INSANE SEC Bias | How this impacts Iowa

Episode Date: August 6, 2026

ESPN faces backlash over unchecked SEC bias, stirring questions about college football media narratives. The Big 10 Squad debates Peter Burns’ misleading SEC vs. Big Ten strength of schedule claims, examining how media giants influence perceptions and why networks like Fox and CBS hesitate to match ESPN’s promotional energy for the Big Ten. Ohio State’s and Penn State’s identical 9.5 win totals spark heated predictions. The roundtable breaks down Ryan Day’s daunting schedule—including Texas, USC, Oregon, and Michigan—and evaluates whether the Buckeyes can surpass lofty expectations or stumble amid fierce competition. Insights into Penn State’s revamped roster, key transfers, and Big Ten title aspirations add intrigue. Will Ohio State’s offensive line issues cost them a playoff shot, or does Jeremiah Smith’s star power make the difference? The hosts weigh bold over/under picks for the season ahead. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

ESPN feels at times like they're not even trying to hide the SEC bias anymore. They're just letting anything go. Ohio State has a shockingly low wind total, but there is a reason. Penn State is oddly high. That is on today's Locked-on Big Ten 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. Happy Thursday, everybody. Welcome to this week's Lockdown Big Ten Squad. I'm your host, Spencer McLaughlin, Neutral Arbiter of All Things College Football. Of course, Craig Sheiman of Locked on Big Ten is here with Zach Seiko of Lockdown, Netany Lions, Jay Stevens, Locked on Buckye, Zach Anderson-Yoxheimer of Locked on UCLA Bruins,

and Roman Tomashoff of Locked on Huskies as well. And hopefully everybody will, you know, get to hear the squad show this week because we did a great one from Big Ten Media Days last week in Chicago. And it is currently in a state of being resembling either Schrodinger's cat or the tree in the forest that falls and no one's around to hear it. It's in the void. Yeah, it's in the void. Yeah, it's a multiverse.

It's just, it's stuck uploading. Yeah. That would be a great answer to the question of why isn't it out there. Is it far from home or no way home? Well, brand new days. The movie is about to come out. Just like today's a brand new day. Yeah.

It was good. Anyway, I haven't seen it yet. No spoilers. Stop talking, Roman. Gosh. Roman is once again coincidentally positioned in the last spot. Yeah, crazy how this always happens. It's always a thing.

I didn't even try this time. I just noticed it. Hey, hey, hey, hey, Yoxheimer. No, no, no, no. Bad Bruin. That's a bad brewing. Very, very bad. Speaking of bad,

Peter Burns of ESPN, who reports on the SEC, tweeted out something that was verifiably false to gas up the conference and downplay the Big Ten. I mean, he hasn't issued a correction, an apology, taking it down. It's just sitting there. So I guess Craig Sheiman, this is just where ESPN is.

They're going to clickbait to hope people don't notice to push the Big Ten Net is worse than the SEC narrative. Like, what is happening here? Yeah. First of all, two things. I have a 100 degree fever in a scratchy throat. So unlike Isaiah, who didn't come from Lock, down Wolverines because he's hurt. This is my Jordan flu game podcast. So I'm glad to be here today. Let's go. Given your belief sign over your left shoulder, I'm going to go watch the new

episode of Ted Lassow as soon as we're done taping here. So I'm all good about that. Peter Burns used to come on my radio show regularly back in the day every once a while. We had our nice little SEC Big Ten rivalry. What is worse regarding his comments saying that nine SEC teams that are playing five top 25 teams of the Big Ten's playing none. We all know that the eight big 10 teams are playing at least five. But were he really messed up, he got the

SEC number. He did it stuff for I went back and looked I was up to midnight last night going through everybody's schedules. 11 SEC teams play five or more top 25 teams. So he messed it up from top to bottom. He didn't even get the propaganda right.

They've thrown in the towel. So much. Whose lip sink ships? That is not a prerequisite to work at ESP apparently. Yeah, that's kind of how it feels because it's like, wait a bit.

Because when I first saw it, like, I didn't have that stat loaded into my head about how many were playing, you know, in the coaches poll and whatnot. But I saw it and I was like, none? Wow. Oh, that seems odd. And then I was seeing a couple of the replies. I was like, wait, how minute?

And then I'm like, wait a minute. Ohio State schedules. Oh, wait. Michigan's Minnesota. Wait, what? SACA, what happened here? ESPN and the SEC are one and the same. They're with one another. Part of me wishes that Fox, CBS, and NBC would go out of its way more to promote the Big Ten. They still try to tow this line of neutrality and things like that, but you still got to promote your product, right? and ESPN is doing that to the fullest extreme, okay?

Because the more you promote the SEC, the more that you hype them up, the more people are going to watch ESPN and your family of networks. That's the SEC network. That's the ACC network. That's the Big 12 network. And I don't know what Fox, CBS, and NBC do on a routine basis to not kind of match that caliber of marketing machine. So this is the ugly side of it because,

I do give ESPN credit. It makes me want to watch more SEC football. They are good at their job with promoting the league. But it comes- Seco's falling for propaganda here? This is crazy. They are a great propaganda machine. The problem is things like this will happen where you would think that the,

hey, there's still objectivity. There's still neutrality and unbiased reporting. And you can't do that. You can't assume that anymore. That is not the case for the most part over at ESPN. and this is just we're talking about a tweet. I saw how many panelists during the SEC media days say the most outlandish stuff about different things. They were debating, you know, where LSU and Lane Kiffin should be expected to go to the national title and go undefeated this season.

And it's like, okay, that's again, because it helps promote more viewership to ESPN. Well, you know, if Fox could give the Big Ten as many plugs and as much promotions, they give Sean Hannity, we would be on the same level of, you know, outright. Like, I don't even know what to call this. Like, this is so lazy from Peter Burns. And then look, I'm sure everyone here has been in the media space for many, many years. Raise your hand if you've ever said something on a show, tweeted something out or put something in an article that was incorrect and you had to go out and you had to correct it in some form or fashion.

Yeah. He's like an astronaut aiming for the moon. Everybody. He wasn't even close. It's like, okay, Mark, let's aim for a higher standard than every day. But like my point is, you know, people make mistakes. It happens. News organizations have to issue corrections.

And he hasn't done that. You look at his feet. He's just going on like, hmm, nothing to see here. Crazy. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. Mark, go ahead. won't come to Zach.

I was trying to say, my bad. Oops, made a mistake. Yeah, it's not that hard. Right, Yoxheimer? Yeah, burn, baby, burned. I mean, it's a point, like, the SEC's been making me want to watch games because ESPN propaganda's been crazy.

But that was when they're on CBS. Now it's crazy that ESPN kind of controls that SEC deal. Remember when they're always on CBS, middle of the day, Saturday, and ESPN spent most of college game day just promoting it. So it's kind of crazy. Bim B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B M B M B M B M B M B. Okay.

I could do the entire show that way but you would think the guy with a hundred degree fever would be doing something weird like that not the The Sober Sanger Rastroger. Yeah. Jay, what are we like that? looking at here. Like, what do we even do? Should this all just, you know, roll off and like at this point, like should like should we care or like what do we even do at this point? Because it's just example after example. This is on the heels of Laura Rutledge going

out. Laura Rutledge is great. She went out there and said, well, you know, they go play a nine game schedule and they're just more exhausted. It's like they haven't done that yet. I don't know what we can do to kind of change this. ESPN's kind of the machine that they are. Sakel made a good point about Fox and CBS and NBC kind of doing more to promote the Big Ten. Fox is kind of tied to the Big Ten. They own, I think, the majority of the Big Ten network. But nobody watches FS1. And when you do, you don't see any college football shows.

It's mainly national debate stuff. And if they did have a college football show, maybe they would get more eyeballs to watch Big Ten football and gravitate towards how good the football is in the conference. But they don't do that. They don't do it at all. I don't know about any of it. No. Yeah. CBS has, I think the cover three podcast,

do like a Big Ten show once a week on CBS Sports Networks. So like they at least do a little bit there. But Fox has to do more. There's absolutely no reason why you put all that time into pumping up Big Noon, but you do nothing else throughout the week as far as having a weekly show to talk about Big Ten football. Do you guys ever watched? Cole, Kla. Yeah.

Well, okay, so I was about to plug Klatte in half away because I think Klai, That is great, and he's a good guy. Roman, have you ever watched Colin Coward attempt to talk about college football? Yeah, it's terrible. I did it once, and I was like, I can't do this anymore. No, see, his forte is NFL NBA. Hold on. Coward's so bad, even Mark the USC guys like, he's off the rails.

All Coward does is pump up USC. I cannot stand that. That guy goes whichever way the wind is blowing that day. He will change his opinion if you look at him cross-eyed. Okay, yeah, Roman, Roman, take us home about this one. Yeah, this is, this is something that's just a yet another embarrassing look for ESPN, as they continue to lay off some of the, the best people in the business, some of the best in their fields year after year after year after year to give Stephen A and

Pat McAfee more money. This is what we're, this is what we're left with. And it's so disappointing. I can't stand it at this point in time because it's just like, we know how much money they're putting into the SEC, but it's just shame. nameless at a certain point. And again, when we see all of these, these competent people across the industry,

now having to go do their own thing, because ESPN says, oh, Pat McAfee needs another raise so we can do his weird WWE style thing now that, you know, Lee Corso isn't doing the show anymore. I'm just,

I'm just exhausted with all of this. It sounds like we are making a tremendous pitch for why you should subscribe to all of our shows here at the Lockdown podcast network, your team every day, the number one sports podcast. We got to make that show. We do. We do. The host is right there. He is, he's right there. His name is Craig Sheiman.

If you want daily Big Ten coverage, go there. And if you want coverage from all of our teams. I'm making this sound too much like the end of the show. It's not. We have a lot to get to because we're living in a world where Ohio State and Penn State have the same win total. Oh, it makes absolutely no sense until you look at it a little harder. I have to look at anything that much harder. If you want to find good tickets over on game time. That wasn't my best transition, but it wasn't my worst either. There are more live events than ever worth seeing right now. Games, concerts, comedy shows, festivals, the hard part isn't deciding what you want to go see. It's actually getting the tickets.

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Thank you. Well, yes, indeed. I did. And Roman, can we just say, number one, we did buy the tickets on game time. Number two, we did get a great deal. And number three, that viral White Sox chocolate milkshake is as advertised, man. It was phenomenal. They got real whipped cream on there, quality milkshake, toasted marshmallows.

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Everybody loves when the Yankees loose. Everyone is happy. The Yankees loose. Yeah, Yankees loose. Exactly. So here's something that Fanduel doesn't think is going to happen too often this year. Penn State losing. Seiko, I have to start with you on this one.

Their win total got bumped up to nine and a half. Sounds like there's some sharp action. I'm going to call out Fendul and brand bias here. What do you think? Brand bias? Brand bias. The schedule is what it is. It's fairly easy and this Penn State team is not bad.

This is actually a pretty well put together team. You took the best from Iowa State and then kept a lot of good quality players from Penn State. the people that aren't paying attention just think, oh, it's the holdovers from Penn State because the impression that I think that some people get outside of Happy Valley, outside of Penn State is that James Franklin just gutted this roster and took all these talented players. He didn't take any starters with him. Those guys all stayed at Penn State, guys that were either rising to become starters or previous starters. There's a lot of snaps that return from that Penn State team. And then a ton of snaps that are coming over from Iowa State. Yes, some role players, some backups that probably aren't going to, to see a lot of time. But Rocco Beck's the most experienced quarterback in college football. Carson Hanson is a multi-year starter at running back. Chase Soell, Brett Eskleson, multi-year starters at wide receiver, all conference caliber tight end and Ben Bramer,

I included on the tight end watch list award. So this can be, and Danlin from USC. So they have capable coaches and coordinators. So this isn't just copy and paste Iowa State on Penn State's roster. So. are like, he's all right. I mean, Yoxheimer, that was the best UCLA defense in, what, 25 years? Yeah, but you look at the talent that went to the NFL, but he didn't have to recruit. That was such a stacked team. That's what you do with the talent.

His job's on to recruit. That's true. Well, Chip Kelly didn't really have any defensive coaches anyway until he got Denton Lynn. I don't think Chip Kelly knows what a defensive coach is. like he puts them on staff because he's legally required to. I don't know if he actually ever, you know. Does he even know what offense is anymore? Let's be real.

It got him far enough once upon a time. I don't know. Jay Stevens, locked on Buckeyes. Does Chip Kelly even know offense anymore? He's pretty good at it. I would say so. I had a couple of guys that ran for 1,000 yards since his one year's OCEA in Columbus. So I think he knows something about it.

I'm a UCLA Raiders fan, so I'm pretty biased against Chip Kelly. That's horrible. Yeah, that's rough. It's rough football. Are you alive? You don't even have an OC at Washington this year, right? Yeah, it's just Jedfish. Yeah.

It's just the fish. Nice. Nice. So back to Penn State and their nine and a half win total. It's the same as Ohio State. And if you just perused our friends at Fandul, which you should do anyway, there's a lot of great information over there, you could be misled and think, oh, Penn State and Ohio State must be pretty similar teams this year. Here's Ohio State schedule, which, by the way, according to ESPN FPI metrics, is the eighth toughest in all of college football this year. Here we go. Here we go.

For those who can't see, they open with Ball State and Ball is not a state, but it is life. They go to Texas, host Ken State, host Illinois, at Iowa, Maryland, at Indiana. They haven't lost since 2024. Then they have a buy. Then they go to USC. They host Oregon. They play Northwestern at home at Nebraska and they host Michigan. Yeah, nine and a half win totals, Jay, Stevens are not created equal. Pretty easy schedule if you ask me. You're exactly right there. Say go.

I think it's pretty easy. For Ohio State. It's not and a half. It's tough. I have a couple of games that I think are going to be tricky. I'm more nervous about the UFC trip than I was a couple of months ago because the Oregon trip a couple of years ago, Spencer,

remember this. It was a really good game, but it just seemed like at times Ohio State just wasn't there. It was a one point loss. But you can just kind of tell, like, Oregon had a gear that Ohio State did it. Did I say something wrong? I thought Ohio State had their egg. I had the, Roman, I was talking with my friend Jay. Interjecting is not necessary at this point in time.

I was just going to say, I thought Ohio State played great in that game. Well, of course you do, because Will Howard and his clock management was a failure late in the game. and there's a big reason why you guys ended up winning the game. No, the trip to USC is kind of tricky. And I don't want to say Ohio State's going to lose. I do. But I can easily see them looking ahead to Oregon. And I'm not touching that one.

I'm not touching that one at all. No, I'm not. I'm going to say it, that's all. You want me to give my over under prediction now or wait for a minute? Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, go for it. I trust Ryan Day to get over with this one. how difficult the schedule is, knowing the firepower that he has on offense at the skill positions, bringing in Arthur Smith, as weird as it is, I think the O-Line is going to play better than I did a year ago in the bigger games,

and they're going to be able to be more, really just impose their will in the opposition a whole lot better. I trust Patricia, the defense will be fine. It's really up to the offensive line. If the O-line plays a whole lot better, 10-2 should be, I won't say easy because this schedule is hard, but it is doable. if the O-line does not play better, you could be looking at 8 and 4. And then Ryan Day's seat is really hot. You were mentioning the Will Howard slide.

I have a question for the group. When's the last time Arthur Smith and Improve were used in the same sense? I'm just curious. The Titans were pretty good once upon a time. Yeah, yeah, exactly. When was that? 2019.

Ryan Taniel played in 2016, 17. No, no, no. I think that wasn't that 19 that they played the Chiefs? It was 17 or 18 when they made it to the AFC championship and then that was parlayed into the Falcons job for Artur. Yeah. It did. Roman, you make an excellent point on that one. Jay, you mentioned the Will Howard slide and I want to relive what was indeed at the time, one of the happiest moments in my entire life when he slid down and the clock hit zero.

It reminded me of the most iconic quote from the old school pack 12 days, RIP, but welcome back. someone described going to Otson Stadium and how loud it is there. I believe it was an Arizona player and I forgot the guy's name. And Roman, do you remember this quote? I don't. He described it as it's like loud milk. Imagine milk screaming at you. That's what it's like to play there.

Is it spoiled? Is it bland? Or is it fresh? I was thinking like it's tall. It's thick. Is it wrong? raw milk or is it pasteurized? Are we talking oat milk? Are we talking almond milk?

Oat milk and almond milk. almonds don't make milk. Now that it is odds and so. Okay. Anyway, that popped. It popped into my head. The rest of us are going to pick over under on Ohio State when we get back.

Four times this century, Jay. Ohio State has failed to reach 10 wins in the regular season. I'm going over. Look, it's a difficult schedule. No doubt. Texas, Indiana, USC, Oregon. Those are, those are challenging games. Michigan, you never know what could happen.

I think they'll be fine. But, I mean, you're telling me I need two and two from Ryan Day in the biggest games of the year to go over because we know they're not going to lose to anybody else. So, yeah, I'm going over nine and a half. This is an easy over for me. Craig? I think there's five legitimate games on here that you can go,

whoa, we need to do the end to find out what's going on. Look, they may be in danger of losing the Texas game. Maybe, maybe not. It's going to be a great game. I think they will win Michigan. So those three games at Indiana, at USC, and then the Oregon game, you know, which one, which couple can they pick off there? That Indiana game will be the hottest ticket in the history of Bloomington.

And the USC trip's going to be tough. It could come down to the Oregon game again. But I'm like you, I'm just used to Ohio State just rolling out of bed and putting up double-digit wins. I think they get to 10 wins. Seiko, dare you take them to go 9 and 3 in the regular season? And then we can be like our brethren in the SEC and say, 9 and 3 team's got to be in.

It's got to be in. It's got to be in. 3 does have to be in here. It could make sense. There are three possible national title games on this schedule. Texas, Indiana, and Oregon. And then you're only laid. up are yeah you have yes you have ball state and ken state but uh there's really not too many

gimmies here i mean northwestern you're going to be favored by a lot maryland you're going to be favored by a lot illinois should be what eight and four kind of in that range u sc is a team that thinks it can be a national title contender and then you have michigan gosh you have one bad you have a couple bad injuries and there's just not a lot of gimmies on this schedule. I got to say 9 and 3, so I'll take the under. Oh. There's there is, there's too much room for error. Whoa. You just put Penn State in the playoffs right there.

Yeah. By the way, 9 and 3 Ohio State, 10 and 2 Penn State, I'm putting 9 and 3 Ohio State into the playoff without question. Am I right, Yoxheimer? I mean, yeah, because I'm going to say they're going with the under as well. Although I will, I will change my mind. You can put a little asterisk. here. If they beat Texas by three or four scores, I'm going to go back to over. So week two, if they destroy Texas at Texas, I think

they're going to go over that. If they showcase their power and dominate, then they're going to go 10 and 2 or better. But I think they're going to go out. Okay. This is among the softest takes I have ever heard in this show. Hey, if they beat a national title contender by three scores, I think they'll get to 10 wins.

I think it's going to happen, guys. Charmin Ultersoft. We need to find something. You're like cotton candy over there. But I think they're going under. We forget that Iowa game on the road could be very challenging. I'm going under. That's what I mean.

Okay. All right. Anyway, Mark, nine and a half, Ohio State. Tough schedule. Probably the toughest in the big 10. What do you like? One of them, one of the tough of schedules in the big 10. That's for sure.

I got him going 10 and 2. You want to know who they're losing to? USC and Indiana No, they're not going to lose on back-to-back games They're going to lose to Texas And they're going to lose to USC They will be, they're going to lose on the road The inferior former Pac-12 team

10 and two with that schedule That's still going to give them a really good playoff seat Yeah, they're in I might get you a buy If you have wins Let's say that actually happens Mark Which is not unrealistic, honestly. If you lose to

Texas on the road and USC, but you have beaten Indiana who's winning no fewer than 10 games and Oregon who's winning no fewer than 10 games this year and Michigan who's going to be an 8 to 9 win winner and Iowa who's going to be an 8 to 9 win winner like 8 to 9 game winner like yeah, that's that's probably like the number six seed in the college football playoff. Roman, you may have the last word on Ohio State. I think there's too much talent here to say that they're going to go under. I feel like this team is, is just, they're still so battle tested at several positions. When you have the best player in the country and Jeremiah Smith, that dude can change any game in a heartbeat.

So yeah, this is a really tough schedule. I mean, it's not Florida's schedule. Let's be real here. You know, we're talking FBI. But this is one of those. I, I just think this is one of those things. It's actually brutal, though. Like Mississippi State's got a tough draw.

Yeah, Mississippi State's not a good football team. That is also true. What about Arkansas? Yeah, Arkansas, Arkansas. All right, all right, that's... No, I can't, I can't bet against this team. Yeah, I'm honestly surprised anybody took the under, but how about something about being

in the top right of this squad, even though they're on opposite sides of the country. Zach Seiko locked on any lines, Zach Anderson, Yoxheimer. The Zaks don't like Ohio State very much, I guess. So Craig Sheiman, locked on Big Ten, Mark Holkin, locked on USC, J. Stevens, locked on Buckeyes,

Roman Tomashoff, Lockdown Huskies. I'm Spencer McLaughlin from lockdown, you know, wherever. We'll see you next time. And until then, hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.