Big Ten depth pulling ahead of SEC thanks to West Coast influence:

Published Oct. 02, 2023, 5:00 a. m.

By Nathan Baird, COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Big Ten West will no longer exist after this season, but the future Big Ten teams out west are showing how they can add national value to the league. No. 2 Michigan, No.

4 Ohio State and No. 6 Penn State give the Big Ten three of the top six teams in the latest AP Top 25 poll. Washington, Oregon and USC are ranked Nos.

7-9, giving the future Big Ten six of the top nine teams. How does that compare to the future SEC? Other than No. 1 Georgia and No.

3 Texas, no other current or pending teams from that league are in the top 10. (Alabama is trying to claw its way back in after an early loss to the Longhorns. It inched back to No.

11 this week. ) So, through the first third of the season, that means the Big Ten could potentially contend to make up half the field in a 12-team playoff. Lest this be dismissed as a voter-influenced anomaly, some of the leading metrics are more or less mirroring that evaluation.

In the F+ ratings through Week 4 — a combination of Brian Fremeau’s FEI ratings with Bill Connelly’s SP+ ratings — the future Big Ten held six of the top 10 spots. Those metrics still liked Alabama a lot, giving the SEC three of the top six, but no other teams in the top 10 besides Georgia and Texas. Those future Big Ten schools making their push into the top 10 feature the reigning Heisman Trophy winner (USC’s Caleb Williams), a new contender in Washington quarterback Michael Penix and the Ducks team that recently upended the Colorado hype train.

The balance has trended this direction. In last season’s final poll, future Big Ten teams accounted for four of the top eight spots, with Penn State and Washington joining playoff teams OSU and Michigan. USC at No.

12 upped the list to five of the top 12. .