Over or under? Pre-spring predictions for Big Ten win totals
Washington's number is 7.5. What do you think?
It was a so-so 2024 season picking regular-season win totals for the legacy Pac-12 schools.
I went 5-5 on last spring’s forecast, a step back from my 7-3-2 showing in 2023.
My two most confident picks missed — Arizona (over 7.5) and Utah (over 9.5) each underachieved — though Washington (under 7.5), my least confident pick, did turn out correct. Arizona State (under 4.5) and Colorado (under 5.5) greatly outperformed my expectations, and California (over 6.5) came up one win shy of proving me right.
The other four picks I would have made money on? Oregon (over 10.5), USC (under 7.5), UCLA (under 5.5) and Stanford (under 3.5) — so I went 4-0 picking win totals for the Big Ten teams, and 1-5 for everyone else.
With the old Pac-12 a bit further in the rearview now, I’ll pivot to predicting win totals for each of the Big Ten’s 18 programs, instead, using the figures recently posted by FanDuel.
Three Big Ten teams would need to win 11 games to hit the over; two would need to win nine; Washington is one of five teams that would need to win eight to hit the over; another two would need to win seven, and three would need to win six; two would need to win five, and two would need to win only four.
Typically, I’ve ordered my predictions from most to least confident. But since we’re looking at 18 teams now, I’ll just give you my thoughts in order from highest betting win total to lowest.