2026 Week 2 Football Release

BIG TEN FOOTBALL RELEASE - WEEK 2 | STANDINGS | SCHEDULE | WE GIVE BLOOD DRIVE

• Week 2 of the 2026 season features a pair of non-conference clashes against top-15 opponents. Saturday opens with RV Michigan hosting No. 11 Oklahoma at noon ET on FOX before No. 1 Ohio State visits No. 4 Texas at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC.

• The Big Ten had 11 teams included in this week’s AP and US LBM Coaches Polls. The AP poll featured No. 1 Ohio State, No. 5 Indiana, No. 6 Oregon, No. 14 USC, No. 16 Penn State, No. 19 Washington and No. 21 Iowa, while Michigan, UCLA, Illinois and Minnesota received votes. The rankings remained the same in the coaches’ poll with the addition of No. 24 Michigan. Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota and UCLA also earned votes.

• With every team in action, the Big Ten combined to go 16-2 in Week 1 contests. Four teams posted shutouts over the weekend as USC, Penn State, Iowa and Maryland combined to win by a 186-0 margin.

• In his first game at the helm for Penn State, Matt Campbell’s squad defeated Marshall, 45-0. With the shutout, Campbell became the first Nittany Lion head coach to earn a shutout in his debut since Dick Harlow in 1915.

• This season’s first Big Ten Football Players of the Week were announced Monday. USC quarterback Jayden Maiava captured Offensive Player of the Week honors after going 23-of-25 for 349 yards and three touchdowns in a 39-0 shutout of Fresno State. His 92.0 percent completion rate is the highest single-game completion percentage by a Trojan quarterback since at least 1995.

• Penn State’s Caleb Bacon and UCLA’s Ta’Shawn James were Co-Defensive Players of the Week. Bacon recorded six tackles, all in the first half of a 45-0 win over Marshall and tied his career high with three tackles for loss. James secured a pair of critical interceptions to break a 24-all stalemate against California. The defensive back also had eight tackles, the most among the secondary.

• Minnesota’s Javon Tracy was named Special Teams Player of the Week. The wide receiver became the first Gopher ever and fifth player in Big Ten history to score two punt return touchdowns in a game. He set a school record with 167 yards on four returns against Eastern Illinois.

• Nebraska’s Jamal Rule earned the Freshman of the Week laurel after accounting for 169 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns in his collegiate debut versus Ohio. Rule had 122 rushing yards, marking the first time a true freshman Husker running back topped the century mark in a season opener in 22 seasons. He is just the sixth Big Ten freshman since 1995 to have two rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown in a game and the first since 2021.

• The 2026 Discover Big Ten Championship Game will be played on Saturday, December 5, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis and will be broadcast by FOX. The winner will represent the conference as the Automatic Qualifier (AQ) to the College Football Playoff. 

• Abbott and the Big Ten Conference kicked off Season 3 of the We Give Blood drive on August 26. Donations are tracked in real-time until December 4. The school with the most donations at the end will be announced on December 5 at the 2026 Discover Big Ten Championship Game. Every donation can help save up to three lives — and someone in the U.S. needs blood every two seconds. The leaderboard can be found on page 6.

• Indiana captured its first national title last season with a 27-21 victory over Miami (Fla.) in the 2026 College Football Playoff at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Fla. The Hoosiers capped off the season as the only team in college football history to go 16-0.

• The Big Ten has claimed three consecutive College Football Playoff championships by three different universities (Indiana 2026, Ohio State 2025, Michigan 2024).

• With national championships in football and men’s and women’s basketball, the Big Ten became the second conference to sweep football and basketball national titles since 1981-82. The Big Ten is the only conference to achieve the feat with three different schools.