Big Ten 2026-27 projections: standings, All-Big Ten teams and awards

How we built this

Each team preview placed its team in a tier. We started from those tiers, then set the order inside each tier using last season's results, who returns, and two public preseason ratings, KenPom and BartTorvik. Both ratings put Illinois first and Michigan State second among Big Ten teams. These are our opinions as of October 13, 2026, before anyone has played a game. The AP and coaches preseason polls had not been released when we published.

Projected standings

Place	Team	Our tier	2025-26 Big Ten record	Media poll
1	Illinois	Contender	15-5	1
2	Michigan State	Contender	15-5	2
3	Michigan	Contender	19-1	3
4	Nebraska	Contender	15-5	5
5	Purdue	Tournament team	13-7	6
6	Ohio State	Tournament team	12-8	8
7	Wisconsin	Tournament team	14-6	11
8	Iowa	Tournament team	10-10	10
9	UCLA	Tournament team	13-7	4
10	USC	Middle of the pack	7-13	7
11	Indiana	Middle of the pack	9-11	9
12	Minnesota	Middle of the pack	8-12	13
13	Washington	Middle of the pack	7-13	15
14	Maryland	Rebuilding year	4-16	12
15	Rutgers	Rebuilding year	6-14	17
16	Northwestern	Rebuilding year	5-15	16
17	Oregon	Rebuilding year	5-15	14
18	Penn State	Rebuilding year	3-17	18

Tiers: Contender is 1st to 4th, Tournament team is 5th to 9th, Middle of the pack is 10th to 13th, and Rebuilding year is 14th to 18th. The 2025-26 records come from Sports-Reference. The media poll is the Columbus Dispatch preseason poll of 28 voters, released October 5.

Where we differ from the media poll

UCLA is the biggest gap. The voters have the Bruins fourth and we have them ninth, because UCLA lost its two leading scorers from last season. We also have USC three spots lower than the poll, since the Trojans lost their second and third leading scorers. Wisconsin goes the other way. The voters have the Badgers 11th, and we have them seventh because Nolan Winter, Austin Rapp and Braeden Carrington all return.

All-Big Ten teams

First team

• Jeremy Fears Jr., Michigan State, guard. He led the nation with 9.4 assists per game last season and is the Big Ten's preseason Player of the Year.
• Pryce Sandfort, Nebraska, forward. He averaged 18.1 points and made 129 three-pointers last season. He was a unanimous preseason all-conference pick.
• David Mirkovic, Illinois, forward. He made the All-Freshman team last season and the preseason All-Big Ten team this fall.
• Elliot Cadeau, Michigan, guard. He was the most outstanding player of the 2026 Final Four.
• Andrej Stojakovic, Illinois, guard and forward. He averaged 13.5 points last season and made the preseason All-Big Ten team.

Second team

• Trey McKenney, Michigan, guard. He made the All-Freshman team last season and the preseason All-Big Ten team.
• Rodney Rice, USC, guard. He averaged 20.3 points last season and made the preseason All-Big Ten team.
• Nolan Winter, Wisconsin, forward. He averaged 13.1 points last season and made the preseason All-Big Ten team.
• John Mobley Jr., Ohio State, guard. He was an All-Big Ten honorable mention last season and made the preseason All-Big Ten team.
• Pharrel Payne, Maryland, center. He averaged 17.5 points and 7.2 rebounds in 10 games before an injury ended his season.

Third team

• Trent Perry, UCLA, guard. He averaged 12.6 points last season and made the preseason All-Big Ten team.
• Braden Frager, Nebraska, forward. He was last season's Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year.
• Tariq Francis, Rutgers, guard. He averaged 17.0 points last season.
• Alijah Arenas, USC, guard. He averaged 14.1 points as a freshman.
• Eric Dailey Jr., UCLA, forward. He averaged 11.6 points and 5.8 rebounds last season.

Awards

Player of the Year: Jeremy Fears Jr., Michigan State. He ran the offense for a team that finished tied for second and led the country in assists. The league's preseason panel already picked him, and we agree.

Freshman of the Year: Anthony Thompson, Ohio State. Thompson is a 6-8 forward and a top-10 recruit in the 247Sports rankings. USC's Christian Collins is the closest alternative. Michigan's Brandon McCoy Jr. would have been a strong candidate, but he tore his ACL in a summer exhibition and is expected to miss the season.

Defensive Player of the Year: Nolan Winter, Wisconsin. This is the pick we hold most loosely. Winter averaged 8.5 rebounds last season, but rebounding is only one part of defense, and we have not yet found defensive data we trust. Treat it as an early guess.

Sixth Man of the Year: Braden Frager, Nebraska. He won the award last season. He is our pick again if he stays in a bench role.

Coach of the Year: Brad Underwood, Illinois. We project Illinois to win the league after a Final Four run and the loss of a first-round pick.

Newcomer of the Year (our own award, not an official Big Ten honor): DJ Wagner, Maryland. Wagner is a former five-star recruit who transferred from Arkansas. He headlines 10 newcomers at Maryland, six transfers and four freshmen.

What would change our minds

Michigan's spot depends on how quickly its new frontcourt replaces three first-round picks. Nebraska needs its eight new players to fit around Sandfort and Frager. UCLA could prove us wrong if its newcomers score sooner than we expect. We will revisit this order once there is real data from the first month of the season.