What I've done here is to list each of the seven B1G-E teams' four road and five home league opponents. I've organized the opponents roughly by my preliminary guess as to degree of difficulty but the B1G-E teams are just arranged alphabetically:
- Indiana: @tOSU, vsM, vsPSU, @MSU, @UNL, vsPU, @RU, vsUMD, vsIL
- Maryland: vstOSU, @M, @PSU, @UW, vsMSU, @IU, vsPU, vsNU, vsRU
- Michigan: @tOSU, @IA, vsPSU, vsMSU, vsUNL, @IU, @RU, vsIL, vsUMD
- Michigan State: vstOSU, @M, @PSU, vsUW, vsMN, @UMD, vsIU, @IL, vsRU
- Ohio State: @PSU, vsM, vsUW, @MSU, vsIA, @UMD, @NU, vsIU, vsRU
- Penn State: vstOSU, @M, vsMSU, @PU, @IU, vsMN, @RU, vsUMD, vsNU
- Rutgers: @tOSU, vsM, vsPSU, @MSU, vsIA, @MN, vsUNL, @UMD, vsIU
Maybe I'm just being an optimistic Ohio State fan but the Buckeyes were EXTREMELY young last year and I expect them to improve dramatically this year. Meanwhile, my perception is that Michigan lost a LOT from last year's team. I haven't really researched that but I just had the impression last year that they were a very senior-laden team. Thus, I really don't think any of this matters much because I think Ohio State will be the best team by a significant margin such that they aren't going to lose except by surprise upset.
Michigan's schedule is interesting because they have two tough road trips (Columbus and Iowa City) but after that they have seven games they should win. If either the Hawkeyes or Buckeyes aren't quite as good as I'm expecting then suddenly Michigan's forecast is 8-1 and they are one upset away from 9-0 in the league and probably 12-0 overall because the Wolverines chose not to challenge themselves OOC this year.
Penn State gets the Buckeyes and Spartans at home and I already said above that I expect the Wolverines to suffer some dropoff this year so if the Nittany Lions can beat the Buckeyes at home they have a pretty clear path to 9-0. That is probably easier said than done as the Nittany Lions are 1-9 in their last 10 against the Buckeyes with the lone win coming by a FG at home in a miraculous finish in 2016. To their credit, they have been competitive other times with one-score losses in 2018, 2017, and 2014 but they've also been run off the field a few times.
Indiana is a bit of a wildcard as they looked to really be building something pre-pandemic then very nearly won the division in the pandemic year but collapsed last year. The question is whether last year was a return to normal or an aberration.
If my assessment of Ohio State is correct then Michigan State's schedule is just about the worst-case-scenario for the Spartans. They host the Buckeyes but if the Buckeyes are good enough for that not to matter then that just sets them further behind with road trips to Ann Arbor and State College.
I just don't think that either RU or UMD will be ready to contend this year.