Big Ten Preseason Power Ratings

A unit-by-unit assessment of where each Big Ten stands on the brink of the 2020 season.

We're almost to our first game week. Players have decided whether to opt back in, or stay opted out. The rosters are set. The all-conference schedule, albeit on the third try, is finalized. Thus, it's time to stack these Big Ten teams up against each other. 

To compile these power ratings, we ranked each team on a scale of 14-1 from best to worst (so 14 points for the best, 13 points for the second best, and so on and so forth down to 1) on the following criteria:

Coaching, using my annual coach ratings you can see here. 
Depth, using my team Team Total Talent Ratings you can see here. 
QB
RB
WR/TE
OL
DL
LB
DB
Special Teams 

When you add up all the points, here's how I overall power rate the Big Ten heading into the 2020 season (with points in parentheses):

1. Ohio State (123)
2. Michigan (116)
3. Penn State (113)
4. Wisconsin (93)
5. Iowa (91)
6. Minnesota (82)
7. Indiana (76)
8. Northwestern (71)
9. Purdue (61)
10. Nebraska (60)
11. Michigan State (58)
12. Illinois (56)
13. Rutgers (30)
14. Maryland (20) 

Here's the top five within each criteria:

Depth: 1. Ohio State, 2. Penn State, 3. Michigan, 4. Indiana, 5. Purdue

Coaching: 1. Iowa, 2. Michigan, 3. Penn State, 4. Northwestern, 5. Wisconsin

QB: 1. Ohio State, 2. Minnesota, 3. Penn State, 4. Indiana, 5. Nebraska 

RB: 1. Michigan, 2. Penn State, 3. Indiana, 4. Ohio State, 5. Michigan State

WR/TE: 1. Purdue, 2. Ohio State, 3. Minnesota, 4. Iowa, 5. Indiana

OL: 1. Iowa, 2. Wisconsin, 3. Ohio State, 4. Minnesota, 5. Penn State

DL: 1. Michigan, 2. Wisconsin, 3. Ohio State, 4. Penn State, 5. Purdue 

LB: 1. Michigan, 2. Northwestern, 3. Ohio State, 4. Penn State, 5. Wisconsin

DB: 1. Wisconsin, 2. Penn State, 3. Ohio State, 4. Northwestern, 5. Michigan 

Special Teams: 1. Iowa, 2. Ohio State, 3. Michigan, 4. Rutgers, 5. Penn State 

Notes: As you can see, Ohio State is the class of the league and if Ryan Day had a longer coaching resume the Buckeyes would be in a class by themselves even more so...Michigan and Penn State are basically tied and also in a tier by themselves...the West Division teams are pretty bunched together in each of their tiers...Rutgers is not the worst team in the league apparently.