Today is Big Ten media day in Chicago, and the conference's official preseason poll will be announced later today. For now, here's the unofficial media poll, a preseason conference ranking based on the votes of 24 Big Ten media members (two for each school). First-place votes were worth 12 points, second-place votes worth 11 and so on.
No surprise that Ohio State got all 12 first-place votes, and it's no surprise that the Gophers were picked to finish in the middle of the pack. What is surprising is the range of votes for the Gophers, who were predicted as high as third place and as low as 10th. Indiana had the same sort of eight-spot spread. Rank, team, total points (range of predictions)1. Ohio State, 288 (1)2. Wisconsin, 248 (2-5)3. Michigan, 233 (2-6)4. Michigan State, 219 (2-6)5. Purdue, 194 (2-9)6. Illinois, 150 (4-9)7. Minnesota, 142 (3-10)8. Northwestern, 115 (6-11)9. Indiana, 111 (5-12)10. Iowa, 86 (6-12)11. Nebraska, 60 (8-11)12. Penn State, 26 (11-12) Big 10 media day gets started at 8 a.m.
