Dan Orlovsky drops exact number of Big Ten football teams to make College Football Playoff

Zain Bando

Dan Orlovsky drops exact number of Big Ten football teams to make College Football Playoff image

Dan Orlovsky didn't shy away from expressing his feelings about a possible College Football Playoff field with the Big Ten strongly represented come December.

The Big Ten is already trying to maintain a stranglehold on college football. The Ohio State Buckeyes are trying to make it three in a row for the conference, which is one of five teams Orlovsky could see making the field.

"I think the Big Ten has the most CFP teams," Orlovsky said on ESPN's "First Take." "I think that there's five teams in the Big Ten that I feel very confidently in making it. Penn State, Ohio State, Oregon, Illinois and either Indiana or Michigan," Orlovsky said.

"The SEC I feel that four are pretty darn good. Georgia, Texas, LSU and probably 'Bama. I think South Carolina can probably get into that conversation as well, so I think that the Big Ten could squeak out and have one more."

All of those teams certainly seem like contenders, especially the Oregon Ducks, Illinois and Michigan Wolverines. Each has an interesting quarterback situation, not to mention the Ducks are the defending conference champions and Illinois was a few plays away from making its first CFP.

Whether Orlovsky is correct won't be deemed official for quite some time, but it's clear his liking toward the league has him pondering whether multiple teams get in.

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Soon, the college football world will find out.

Zain Bando

Zain Bando is a freelance writer for The Sporting News. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. Over the years, Bando has written about various beats surrounding Illinois, Northwestern, and Kansas State Athletics but sticks to the Big Ten as his primary expertise. Outside of collegiate reporting, Bando covers MMA and boxing for MMA Knockout On Sports Illustrated and hosts/co-hosts two podcasts as part of the Empty The Bench Podcast Network – Bando's Breakdowns and The MMA Outsiders, which air weekly on YouTube and are distributed on all podcast platforms Wednesday nights and Friday afternoons. Bando is a Chicago Suburban native and a member of the FWAA and USBWA, continuing to hone his professional skills as a sports journalist and media personality. Since June 2019, Bando's byline has been featured in numerous media outlets, including MSN, Yardbarker, Deadspin, FanSided, BJPenn.com, Bridge Media Network (Sports News Highlights), Mike Farrell Sports, Reuters, and more. When Bando is not writing, he binges on old UFC fights, spends time with family and friends, memorizes every Super Bowl, and manifests all the places he still has to travel to (even while bringing his laptop).