The Big Ten nearly went perfect in Week 1.
In its first college football weekend as an 18-team conference, Big Ten teams combined to go 17-1. Minnesota suffered the conference’s only Week 1 loss in a heartbreaking 19-17 defeat to North Carolina that ended with a missed 47-yard field goal attempt by Dragan Kesich, the 2023 Big Ten Kicker of the Year.
USC earned the Big Ten’s marquee win of opening weekend on Sunday as the Trojans defeated 13th-ranked LSU, 27-20, in their first game as a Big Ten team. Woody Marks scored a game-winning touchdown on a 13-yard run with eight seconds left to hand LSU its fifth straight season-opening loss dating back to 2020.
Penn State also earned a power-conference win on opening weekend, routing West Virginia 34-12 in Morgantown.
The rest of the Big Ten’s 15 wins came against Group of 5 and FCS teams, and a few of them were closer than they should have been. Michigan found itself in a one-score game in the fourth quarter before beating Fresno State, 30-10; Oregon was also in a one-score game in the fourth quarter before surviving with a 24-14 victory over Idaho. Michigan State (16-10 win over Florida Atlantic), Northwestern (13-6 over Miami-Ohio) and UCLA (16-13 over Hawaii) each survived one-score games.
Nevertheless, every Big Ten team other than Minnesota prevailed in Week 1, giving the Big Ten the best record through one week of any conference that has more than two teams (the Pac-12 went 2-0 with Oregon State and Washington State both beating FCS opponents in their season openers).
