Big Ten picks: Welcome to a new era

As Washington begins conference play, we begin picking Big Ten games.

Photo by Amit Lahav on Unsplash

With regard to this column, Washington’s move to the Big Ten presented something of a dilemma. 

Should I just continue picking each game involving the 12 programs that made up the Pac-12? Or should I simply pick Big Ten games the way I did with the Pac-12?

I settled on something of a compromise. My Pac-12 picks column is now a Big Ten picks column, but I decided to wait until the start of “conference play” to avoid picking 15-plus games the first couple weeks. 

The thing about an 18-team conference, though, is that not everyone begins “conference play” on the same weekend. This week, for example, features four Big Ten games and eight nonconference games, with Oregon and Wisconsin idle (corrected from earlier). Four Big Ten teams have already played a conference game.

Oh well. All that matters is that I wind up on the right side of .500, like during last year’s 42-40-1 performance against the spread. The only difference is that now, we’re sweating Iowa-Minnesota instead of Cal-Arizona State. 

All lines are courtesy of BetMGM. All rankings courtesy of the AP top-25. All kickoff times Pacific.