Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - BIG 10 SQUAD: The SEC may BREAK AWAY from the NCAA | How this impacts Iowa

Episode Date: July 23, 2026

SEC eyes breakaway league as Michigan, Ohio State, and the Big Ten respond—are seismic changes ahead for college football's powerhouses? The Big 10 Squad dissects SEC’s rumored solo championship ambitions and ESPN FPI’s controversial ranking of Ohio State’s brutal schedule. The crew questions the legitimacy of an SEC-only title, debates Michigan’s 8.5-win total under new head coach Kyle Whittingham, and analyzes key matchups against Oklahoma, Oregon, and Penn State. Rosters, coaching shifts, and quarterback Bryce Underwood's development take center stage as the Wolverines look to stay at the top of the Big Ten. Can Michigan exceed expectations in a stacked conference? Will Ryan Day finally beat Michigan at home, or does 9-3 become the new reality in Columbus? Get the latest insights and sharpest takes on college football’s shifting landscape. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The SEC might want to just form their own league, play their own championship. Not that that'll change where actual championships are won. Will Michigan contend for one of those this year? That is on today's Lockdown 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. Isaiah Hall of Lockdown Wolverines is here. His team will be put on the witness stand today

with a win total of eight and a half, according to our friends at Fandul. Roman Tomashoff of Lockdown Huskies is here. Jay Stevens, Lockdown Buckeyes, Zach Anderson, Yoxheimer of locked on UCLA as well. And I'm sure Craig Sheiman of Lockheman of Lockhexoff. on Big Ten will roll in at his earliest convenience whenever that may be. We set the same time of when we record this show every single week.

And Craig Mosy's on in whenever he gets done, I don't know, whatever he's doing. I don't want to hypothesize about that. It can go off the rails very quickly. The SEC might want to leave the train tracks that are the NCAA, maybe even just set up their own playoff model. And you know what popped in in my head with this, Isaiah, is it seems like no Dame is perfect for the SEC because they're trying to set the model of if you don't get exactly what you want, just pack up your things and go home. Just leave and ditch everybody else.

That's the way that we do it now, right? Well, they honestly should just go ahead and go home. You know, that's their whole thing. It's not winner go home. It's just go home. I think the thing of what this is is I think the SEC ultimately just misses what the college football playoff was. you know, before where it was like, we've got to, you know, there's four teams and we've got to get all four in because no other league is, it would be, it would be like, well, Alabama, you know, they lost to Georgia, but Georgia lost to Missouri. And because, so you got to put Missou in and Missou lost to Vanderbilt, you know, and I'm not talking about the, the recent Vanderbilt. I'm talking about the old Vanderbilt. They'd be like, yeah, they lost to Vanderbilt. So you got to put them in. And it's just like this complete lack of a better term circle jerk essentially that they had going on. there and i feel like they just feel like okay we're not getting that because we're not listen everyone can pay players everyone can be good you know like it's it's it's not this uh you know handshake and a bag of cash at a macdonalds after going and stopping by a car car dealership type of stuff anymore and therefore they're just crying that's all they're doing is crying so yeah go

go set up your own thing and you know the people down south will think it's legitimate while everyone else actually tries to make something that it actually works as stupid as expanded playoffs might be you said lack of a better term were there no better ones that you can come up with that was the only one okay yeah yeah i don't i don't think it's getting left out of the show far worse has been included in i don't know if you guys have ever watched the big 12 squad you The dude with the burrito could actually show up on their show. Yeah, that was what I was kind of thinking of there. But, Roman, I'll go to you with this.

How would an SEC only league land to you? Would that feel like a legitimate national champion? No, that would be the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in my entire life. Like, it's kind of like, you know, I'm sorry, Zach, the Dodgers 2020 World Series Championship. Whoa. Oh, whoa. Don't make me call up Mark. I'm going to call Mark right now. We're going to tag team this. Zach, it's very rude of you to interrupt Roman as someone who's never done that before.

I thought you meant never seen a World Series championship appearance or a national championship. We can go there. We can watch it. Watch it. Roman was making a very well-illustrated point and I want everyone to hear it. Roman, you may continue. you. Thank you, Spencer, neutral arbiter of all things college footballs. I've never once disagreed with in my entire life. I, it's one of those things where like it's just, it's so ridiculous where I do like Isaiah's point of, you know, the Mizzou's and the Vanderbiltz of the world getting, getting to be included. And that's just so ridiculous. And the SEC is just, they've really worn on me like we, I know how much Spencer hates FBI and I feel like I need to include it for 10 seconds here because they're going to go out on this reference of, look, Oh, 12 of the top 25 toughest schedules are in the SEC. It's like, no, A, it's just wrong. That's not true. But B, you can't sit here and do all this flex in about this, that, and the third thing.

And you aren't winning anything. You're not even getting all the way to the final at this point in time. When's the last that happened? The time that happened, 2022? Like, come on. We can't, we can't sit here and act like the SEC has been what it was in the mid-2000s and, you know, early 2010s. I'm just exhausted with all of this and the fact that, again, Isaiah made a whole bunch of great points with the, yeah, the McDonald's bags, the coffee cups, the car dealerships. Yeah, that's gone. Now, now the playing field is more level in that sense, not totally level, but it's a little bit more even. And we're seeing what that looks like. So, cry, me a rover.

If you put wads of cash in a brown bag, what goes in the coffee cup? It depends on the school that you went to. Be, oh, beans. Yeah, magic beans that will give you unforeseen prosperity and wealth. Zach, that was a question. Yeah. Yeah, it might, Roman. It might.

It might. So, Jay, I had a really great thought to ask you because it was Ohio State specific. And I have to tell you in the last 30 seconds. I forgot. So I'm going to hope that I think of it because I remember it as being fun and witty, but I don't remember what it was. So once I get there, you may weigh in on the discussion at hand. This seems like more of a negotiation tactic since they haven't settled on a playoff model for the 2027 season, knowing that that date is still scheduled for December 1st. They have to have something in place for the playoff in a format at least agreed upon, we stick with what we currently have.

And I think this is more Greg Sankey's way to kind of negotiate, to try to get the Big Ten to come to their way, come to their side. We don't want to lose you, so we'll do what you want to do. I don't really think they're going to do this. I don't at all. I think it's just more Greg Sankey trying to negotiate and trying to get his way, not in a new form, but in a current form, just trying to get more of the 16th playoff model,

not Tony Batiti's model that nobody likes. I remember. I remember. Jay, I need your instant reaction to ESPN's FPI, which is a joke, putting Ohio State's schedule as the eighth toughest in the country. Eighth, top, toughest. ESPN's FPI thinks there are seven schedules in college football that are tougher than Ohio states, which is laughable. That schedule is so hard for those who don't know. Ohio State that as a program, since the turn of the century, has won fewer than

10 games four times has a win total of nine and a half with a returning quarterback i would love to see the other seven but at the same time did you not hear my whole thing about missou has to play vanderbilt someone was literally making that point but in a serious way isaiah on twitter the other day saying like oh this team's got to play Alabama 10 Tennessee and Missouri in this stretch. And I'm like, I have to interject here for one second because I know this is something that I feel like I've talked about before in 2017, Quint Kessich was on Washington sideline talking about how horrendous their non-conference schedule was that year.

And one of the teams on the schedule is Fresno State. And then in the booth, they legitimately praised Alabama for playing Fresno State. Like it's, it's unbelievable. It's insane. It is. It is. Zach, I know this is not the basketball discussion that you yearn for, although UCLA potentially on the rise there. Look, should the actual best conference in college football, the Big Ten, just pack up and leave everybody behind and go play their own championship? Does that sound like fun to anybody?

I mean, it feels like it's been happening in last four years, basically. So what else do we need the SEC for? SEC finally sees what it's like to play nine conference games. They're already complaining. takes the newcomer like the, what, the former Tulane coach, John Summerald, to say, hey, yeah, I'm not going to complain about playing big boy football. The SEC complains, complains, complaints, and if you're a big boy, I don't think you need to really complain. The seven schedules ahead of Ohio State, Jay, are Florida, Mississippi, State, Ole Miss, Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.

Those are the toughest schedules. I don't have them memorized off the top of my head, but we could. Well, you just listed off seven SEC schools in Ohio State. Yeah, I did. And you know that ESPN is probably going to favor the South Eastern Conference over anything Ohio State does. ESPN's FBI going into this year had South Carolina and Florida inside the top 25. They won six games. They won six games, I believe, combined last year, and Florida lost to South Florida.

Yeah. That's where we're at. Where is Michigan at? well, we're all going to have to take a stand. First, this episode brought to you by our friends over at Game Time. They're more live events than ever worth seeing right now, including the upcoming college football season, games, concerts, comedy shows, festivals. The hard part usually isn't deciding what you want to intend.

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redeem code L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N for $20 off download the game time app today all right isaiah would you like to go first or last as we continue along our win total progressions here we only have a handful left because well what do you know there are only a handful of weeks left until the 2026 college football season actually kicks off. For those who don't have it memorize, and look, I'm done trying to make graphics and things. Michigan's schedule goes Western Michigan, a game they almost played in Germany for, you know, no reason. Then they play Oklahoma at home, big game.

U-TEP. Then they start Big Ten play Iowa at Minnesota, a buy before they host Penn State, play Indiana, go at Rutgers, host Michigan State, travel to Oregon, host UCLA, and then go to Ohio State. I don't even know if there are seven schedules tougher than that one in college football. So Isaiah, Fanduel, has got the win total for the Wolverines and first year head coach, Kyle Whittingham, just as we all would have predicted 365 days ago at this time. At eight and a half, over, under, where are you going? I mean, I have the over by half a game.

That said, like, I'm not going to begrudge anyone for taking me under. That is a brutal schedule. But the way I look at it is twofold, right? Like, they've got the two extremely tough road games at Oregon, which I gave Michigan the lowest probability of winning that game. And then Ohio State, which, you know, like, it's not necessarily a throw-out the record books type of thing like people like to say. But, you know, if Michigan is found an offense under.

Jason Beck with Brady, not Brady, Bryce Underwood. I think that, you know, I was going to say Brady Hoke, of all people. Quarterback Brady. I was supposed to make a Tom Brady joke, too. Oh, man. I don't know. Brady Hoke. That's where I was going with it.

Hey, if you try really hard, you could find Tom Brady eligibility. You know, five for five, you know, you might have been. Yeah, exactly. Brady probably only 55 or 55. But nonetheless, I think. that you look at there's six games essentially that will decide so can michigan get three of these six and they have four of them at home it's oklahoma uh which i mean who knows what oklahoma is going to be this year necessarily probably pretty good but like what is it like when you travel

you got iowa who i don't have as much faith in uh in large part due to our compatriot trent uh absolutely flamed michigan for no reason on the iowa preview show so i have have no faith in Iowa whatsoever. Penn State, which, who knows, right? Because also coaching changed, having half of Iowa State there. Indiana, who has to come to Ann Arbor, that's going to be obviously tough at Oregon and at Ohio State. I mean, again, I won't begrudge anyone if they look at it and say, yeah, they're going to

lose four of those games. But I'm going to, I'm going to look at Kyle Whittingham and the fact that he's been able to do more with less. And now that he's going to have the most talented team he's ever had in his coaching. tenure and what all of those coaches have had. I think that they're going to be able to find ways to maybe surprise some people this year, especially given what Jason Beck's offense has been at the last two stops, number four in the country, number two in rushing offense. I'm a big fan of Jay Hill, the defensive coordinator that Kyle Weddingham brought over from BYU. Those two guys were coaching

against one another in one of the best rivalry games in all of college football last year, and now they are trying to achieve the same goal. So I think you have a great staff. I think the roster is good. They brought over some key players like John Henry Daly. I like where Michigan is. I just wonder about Bryce Underwood, Isaiah. I heard some rumblings not long ago that it's not where they would like it to be right now.

What have you heard on him? I've not heard that, honestly. Like I've seen some of the punditry, whether it be regional and more like lately it's been national. everything I've heard is that he's exactly where they want him to be. I guess we'll find out a little bit more this next week at Big Ten Media Days. But everything I've heard is he's doing the types of things that they want. The spring game was alarming. He wasn't expected to play in the spring game until less than 24 hours beforehand.

Like how would he even have even said midweek? He's like, yeah, Bryce isn't playing in this thing. And then the day before is like, oh, Bryce is going to play for one quarter. It did not have a good showing in that. But nonetheless, I mean, you're going to see him use his legs on top of the fact that he's got more targets. You mentioned John Henry Daley, but like you, I'd look at it and say JJ Buchanan, Jamie French, Celessi Moa, those are big additions.

I mean, that's like a Michigan wide receiver room. You just typically do not see. So I don't think that they necessarily need to throw the ball over the yard. They just need to be able to essentially do what they want to do, which is pound up front, run the football, and then have enough passing. I'm not even talking anything more than 3,000 yards. You get 3,000 yards passing and Bryce runs for 700 yards to go along with the running backs. I mean, that's kind of the style of victory that they want to have.

Roman, how do you feel about Michigan with mobile Jimmy Garapolo back there? Wow, that's quite a comparison. Spencer, first of all, I have a bone to pick with you. You just did a tremendous ad read for our good friends over at game time. And you did not mention the fact that next week, I bought us tickets on game time. And there's two other people as well from our illustrious Big Ten school. on or not here so they don't get shout out. Listen, I pride myself and think of myself as a man of faith as there's a drive in a deep

left field by Cassie out. Wow. Oh, okay. That's perfect timing there. Well, I mean, Spencer asked me a question. The mobile Jimmy Garoppolo is crazy. But Isaiah, one name who I also really like in that, that wide receiver was just happened.

I, you know, it was perfect timing. So I was just going to keep going and answer the actual question that you asked me. That was one of my favorite things. that I've ever seen. I didn't even hit anything. It just left the window. I mean, you had the controls too. So it's all that you know.

That's why I'm in the funneled. I thought that you did that on purpose for a second. We all thought you did that on purpose. It's like as I was doing the fake Tom Brennaman apology where he gets, you know, take it off the air for a while. All of a sudden, it was out of the show. I was like, oh my gosh. Is stream yard listening to me?

Yeah, no, that's, I was just going to tip my cap and be like, no, that that's tremendous. this. But I do like this Michigan defense. I do have the over. I think that they're going to be able to get there. It does come down to one game, in my opinion. And that's, that's just Oklahoma at home. If you get through that, I think you'll wind up hitting the over this year. The Penn State, like I'm still not totally sold on that team this year. And the fact that that game is also at home is as big for me in this. So give me nine and three. When we get back, Jay is going to say words about the Michigan football team, and I'd encourage you not to miss that.

Good thing I didn't get randomly kicked out while we were doing that transition there. That would have been an absolute mess for somebody else who edits this show. Okay, Jay, this is your moment in the sun if you would like to dunk all over Michigan. By all means, go for it. This is the moment. I'm not in that kind of mood when thinking about the Michigan team. I have a lot of respect for Kyle Woodingham, and I do believe that Bryce Underwood, year two will be better. We'll take what you'll see some strides in his passing his decision making

and being able to use his legs in a more effective way. I was on the under leaning into it, hearing everybody else talk and I kind of moved some stuff around all my notebook. I could see nine and three, which originally I didn't see that at all. But Kyle Woodingham's a really good coach. You give him more talent than he's ever had the fact that Michigan's fans are going to do everything they can and make that place a madhouse very loud. single time. I mean, playing Oklahoma at home is huge. It's a great way to build confidence early in the year. If they get that win, I mean, nine and three is more realistic. They could even be 10 and 2. It could be a year because Ohio State schedule is very brutal. The Michigan could

have a better record than Ohio State or maybe the same. If they both have nine to three records, it's bad news bears at Columbus. Fans in Michigan might be rejoicing because that's kind of where things are right now. And 93 for Ohio State wouldn't be the worst thing. I mean, they're playing really good schools, it's just you don't want to have the same record as that school up north. But I really do think 9 and 3 is a realistic thing for Kyle Weddingham this year. If they don't get the over, it's not the end of the world. You worried about the Wolverines coming to Columbus this year, pulling another 2024-esque upset? Not the team.

I'm worried about Ryan Day getting at his head. Rinday has a tendency at times to look at storylines and hear things. say and allow them to impact him. We all remember his postgame presser after beating Yoder Dame on the road. Where's Lou Holtz? And I'm like, dude, like, what's going on? You just won a game. Like, we have a tough team. We just saw you have a tough team. We don't have to tell us you have a tough team. But sometimes he lets these narratives kind of getting his head. Ryan Day has never beat Michigan at home. The two wins he has have both been in Ann Arbor. And so now as Ryan Day went on a daddy a couple years ago and then snapped the losing streak to Michigan last year,

he's getting Michigan at home this year with a quarterback of Julian saying who was a higher than finalist, Jeremiah Smith, who was the best player in the sport. And Ryan A's in here like, I know what we got talent-wise. I know the coaching staff. I know everything we have.

I know we're at home. But I've never beat that team here. And I'm afraid that that little narrative might haunt him all week. Don't forget. He'll also be going up against a coach who will not be messaging only fans models that have.

theoretically. One might argue that that's why he was able to beat Ohio State, though. If you really want to get technical. I mean, Ryan Day just want to know against Kyle Woodingham. So that's one thing he has on the coach. But that, that M messes with Ryan Day's head. Yeah, nothing messes with heads like, okay. We don't need to go down there.

I didn't, I never thought about that that Ryan Day's never beat Michigan. in Columbus. That's a strange. That called me off guard. I'm not going to tell you. Did not think about that before. Zach, Michigan, eight and a half. It's an unfortunately perfect number

for my friends at Fandow. It's like they do this, you know, for a living or something. Over under. What do you got? I think the bigger question is not whether they'll hit the over. It's whether I'll show up to the UCLA Michigan game in late November or not freeze my butt off. I think Michigan has plenty of home games. Any tough game outside of obviously a couple.

They're at home, the Oklahoma game, Indiana. They have plenty of big-time games when it's a battle of first-year coaches. I trust Kyle Whittingham at this new spot more so than Matt Campbell at Penn State. There's even a world where they knock off Indiana at home in a crazy, crazy world. I trust the home crowd in Arbor. But 9 and 3, I think, is bankable. It's a tough schedule, but I think it's doable. And we've seen Kyle Whittingham, especially with us, Pac-12 folk, do it even in the Big 12.

I think he's good enough to get it done in year one, Michigan. Although 8 and 4 wouldn't be the worst. I do think 9 and 3 is there. And the question is, will I freeze in late November if we get these tickets and make it go out to Ann Arbor? Yes. You go into the game? If you do, make sure you use our friends at game time. Yeah.

Yeah. We're working on it. Most definitely. You know, Isaiah, I don't know if you've seen this on the Michigan website before. But if you go to their football schedule on the official website and you look at the videos that they have posted at the bottom just from their SID and whatnot. There's a football post game report, 2026 spring game. Football 2026 spring game highlights. Football spring game press conference Kyle Whittingham and then the fourth article at slash video.

14 early practices provide fresh start as Wolverine's spring game nears. Anything in particular? They're looking for a fresh start from. Not ringing any bells. It's been just smooth sailing for as long as I've covered the team. Yeah, that's how it looks from afar. You just go full Wolf of Wall Street here. I don't recall. I don't recall.

We never really have anything to talk about on lockdown. How do you get through the offseason? You know, it's usually we talk about, I usually spend most of the time just ripping on Iowa thanks to Trent Condon and his comments from a couple weeks. Am I bitter? No, no. This is just what we do. This is.

This is indeed how we roll. And that is where we wrap the squad for today. I honestly haven't decided yet whether I'm probably over. No, you got to take a stand right here. Make a decision. You yell at me every single time I don't. Well, when you get put in charge of the squad one day, you can do such things as this. Isaiah Hall locked on Wolverines from a top shop.

Locked on Huskies, Jay Stevens, Lockdown, Buckeyes, Zach Anderson, Yoxheimer, Lockdown, UCLA. I'm Spencer McLaughlin from Lockdown all over the place. We appreciate everyone listening. We'll see you next time. Until then, hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.