Well, even though that is how Riley's team turned out in 2015, I'd hate to think it's main role will be spoiler. Just a one year sample. Critics will point to his history. For every USC, there is a Sacramento State. Upside that I see today is recruiting. I'm thinking he'd never been in the game on so many big fish at this point while at Oregon St. It's too early to get enamored in a recruiting ranking number, but total star value is sitting mostly 3rd in the Big Ten. Plus, I like that he fired his Dline coach after one year and brought in somebody that has injected some recruiting-roids for a much needed area. That took some balls, imo.
I know returning QB has lost some of it's luster in recent years (at least when talking the elite teams going for the national title), but I still put some value there, and if each division has 4 legit candidates to make a run for the title game, Nebraska is returning a guy 33 starts. Got to like Iowa's guy too. I'm not sure he's a game winner, but he manages it very well, which is what they want in their system.
I don't want to exclude Wisconsin from this deal, they'll weigh in on who wins it all, but it's likely going to take a team that can go 7-2. Right now, I'd say that's Neb-Ia-Nw (though for transparency, I didn't have Iowa anywhere in the picture last year and they went 8-0, I did pick MSU in the east though).
The east looks even tougher. Everybody will be high on Michigan and Ohio St. I see a slight drop in Ann Arbor and Urb finally has to play a real Big Ten schedule, though they have the only returning QB of the 4 contenders. Penn State may just be better now that they lose that QB (not a fan of Hackenburg) and get something that's a better fit for Franklin. And then there is good ol faithful MSU. If they can take the ND lump early and catch some steam they might have enough in the tank to close the deal out, again.
