Ranking the Big Ten coaches ahead of the 2024 season as the conference welcomes four new members
• 10 min read
The 2024 college football season will feature a brand new Big Ten. We’re all well aware of the four schools joining the league this summer (Oregon, UCLA, USC, Washington), but when it comes to coaches in the conference, there are far more changes shifting the landscape.
Of the 18 coaches in this story who will be patrolling the sidelines this fall, only nine were ranked here last year. There are the four newcomers, but there were also five other changes following the season. When we wrote this story last summer, Pat Fitzgerald was still Northwestern’s coach, so there’s no guarantee that all 18 coaches listed here now will even make it to Week 0.
Then there’s the change at the top. Jim Harbaugh was the top-ranked coach in the league entering last year, but after winning his third straight conference title and a national championship, Harbaugh has left for the NFL. That means the coach Harbaugh has beaten for the league title in those three seasons moves back up to No. 1. Among the top five coaches on this year’s list, only two have spent at least two seasons in the Big Ten.
College football has undergone a lot of change in recent years (months, weeks), and the Big Ten is no different. While things are bound to change again, here’s where we have the league’s coaches ranked heading into the 2024 season according to experts from both CBS Sports and 247Sports.
