It is May, which means there is no time like the present to think about things happening in September, and for any gamblers in your life, no time like the present to think of ways to lose money betting on the future.
Nevertheless, the oddsmakers at BetOnline released their latest iteration of preseason conference championship odds on Monday afternoon. These odds will be updated a few times as the summer goes along and things change across the college football landscape but early on is still a good idea of where Vegas and others think teams might end up when the season is all said and done.
For Penn State the Nittany Lions open at a fairly predictable location with the fourth-best odds in the Big Ten. This basically reads as Bovada thinking Michigan will be slightly better than Penn State after the presumptions that Ohio State will win the whole thing and Wisconsin gets a punchers’ chance by likely being the best team in the west division.
Generally speaking this falls in line with most of Penn State’s most recent seasons – an assumption that Ohio State is the best in the Big Ten and then the combination of Michigan, Wisconsin and Penn State will shake out the rest of the Top 4. That said, Penn State has gone against the odds in the past. Here’s a look at the preseason odds since 2016.
NCAA Football 2022 Season Odds to win Big Ten Championship (as of May)
- Ohio State 1/2
- Wisconsin 10/1
- Michigan 11/1
- Penn State 12/1
It’s going to come down to Sean Clifford, the offensive line and a reloading defense. Penn State is going to be better than most teams in the Big Ten by nature of talent and experience, but is that good enough to finish above third in the Big Ten East?
NCAA Football 2021 Season Odds to win Big Ten Championship (as of May)
- Ohio State 2/3
- Wisconsin 8/1
- Michigan 17/2
- Penn State 17/2
Penn State entered the 2021 season with promise but probably more questions than some fans may have cared to admit. This team is better than its final record, but your record is your record.
NCAA Football 2020 Season Odds to win Big Ten Championship
COVID-19 really changed the odds on a weekly basis before the season began so this has simply been omitted.
NCAA Football 2019 Season Odds to win Big Ten Championship (As of August)
- Ohio State 7/4
- Michigan 2/1
- Nebraska 8/1
- Michigan State 12/1
- Penn State 12/1
Penn State finished this year 11-2 and was far better than anyone expected. That being said the Nittany Lions also lost their two biggest games of the year, so “better than most but not elite” isn’t a totally unfair odds assessment here – even if 12/1 turned out to be a bit longer than it was in reality.
NCAA Football 2018 Season Odds to win Big Ten Championship (As of July)
- Ohio State 3/2
- Wisconsin 14/5
- Michigan 11/2
- Penn State 6/1
This Trace McSorley led team ended up not being quite as good as people may have expected, but losing Saquon Barkley and a host of other supplementary talent didn’t exactly help the cause any.
NCAA Football 2017 Season Odds to win Big Ten Championship (As of July)
- Ohio State 5/6
- Wisconsin 15/4
- Michigan 11/2
- Penn State 11/2
In hindsight it’s a bit surprising these odds weren’t better considering how much of the 2016 team returned in 2017. That being said, Michigan was expected to be very good and Ohio State was expected to be even better. So in many ways this speaks a lot more to the quality of the Big Ten East than it does to Penn State being underrated. 2017 season will always bring about a lot of “what ifs?” for the program.
NCAA Football 2016 Season Odds to win Big Ten Championship (As of September)
- Ohio State 8/5
- Michigan 2/1
- Michigan State 7/1
- Iowa 15/2
- Nebraska 9/1
- Wisconsin 16/1
- Penn State 20/1
Nobody saw 2016 coming, certainly not after Penn State lost to Pitt and got its doors blown off by Michigan. After the struggles in 2014 and 2015 it was fair to not see too much in Penn State that year. Boy was everyone wrong, then again the Nittany Lions didn’t see this in themselves either until halfway through the year.
