Greg McElroy picks Ohio State over Oregon in Big Ten Championship

Ohio State-Oregon headlines a finger-lickin’-good slate of college football on Oct. 12. ESPN analyst Greg McElroy believes we’ll get another order of that head-to-head the first week of December.

McElroy is predicting that Ohio State and Oregon will meet again in the Big Ten Championship, this time in Lucas Oil Stadium with the league title on the line.

“I think both teams are going to be 11-1, 8-1 in the conference, and ultimately they’re at the neutral site in a dome,” McElroy said on his show Wednesday.

“I’m taking the Ohio State Buckeyes to beat the Oregon Ducks in the Big Ten title game and punch their ticket to playoff, which means Oregon and Penn State are still well positioned to be an at-large, but they’ll be sitting there awaiting their fate on selection day that Sunday after the conference title games.”

McElroy eventually went on to put both Oregon and Penn State in his 12-team College Football Playoff field. Here’s his completion projection:

No. 1 Georgia (SEC champion)
No. 2 Ohio State (Big Ten champion)
No. 3 Miami (ACC champion)
No. 4 Utah (Big 12 champion)
No. 5 Oregon (Big Ten runner-up)
No. 6 Texas (SEC runner-up)
No. 7 Alabama (SEC, third place)
No. 8 Penn State (Big Ten, third place)
No. 9 Notre Dame
No. 10 Ole Miss (SEC, fourth place)
No. 11 LSU (SEC, fifth place)
No. 12 Memphis (AAC champion)

Ohio State and Oregon are currently No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, in the preseason AP Top 25. The Buckeyes travel to Eugene Week 7 and will play the Ducks in Autzen Stadium.

The programs last squared off in Week 2 of the 2021 season. Oregon quarterback Anthony Brown Jr. and running back CJ Verdell teamed up to expose a sub-standard Ohio State defense in Ohio Stadium and left Columbus with a 35-28 win. That’s the only time the Ducks have beaten the Buckeyes in the 10-game series.

Most notably, Ohio State defeated Oregon in the national title game at the end of the 2014 season. The Buckeyes capped the first-ever CFP with a 42-20 blowout win, in large part thanks to the heroics of quarterback Cardale Jones and running back Ezekiel Elliott.

Part of what makes this year’s showdown between Ohio State and Oregon so intriguing is that both programs are led by graduate transfer quarterbacks. Former UCF and Oklahoma star Dillon Gabriel is piloting the Ducks, and former Kansas State standout Will Howard has the keys to the Buckeyes’ offense.

Oct. 12 is circled on the calendar, but, according to McElroy, Dec. 7 should be, too.