/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/67138137/1192609052.jpg.0.jpg)
The Cleveland.com Big Ten pre-season media poll is a tradition that heralds the coming season. Typically, it’s the moment when you really get excited for the fall (if you weren’t there already). Thanks to COVID, it’s a Friday news dump.
One Big Ten football tradition has persevered through COVID-19. Here are the results of the 10th annual cleveland .com preseason poll, where Ohio State is a near-unanimous pick to win its fourth consecutive championship. https://t.co/5mxeDViDqk pic.twitter.com/naRoCbcpyo
— Nathan Baird (@nwbaird) July 31, 2020
I’ll quickly summarize the results and then get to some thoughts. But let me state up top that this is the least meaningful or exciting pre-season poll ever. I literally forgot it was a thing that happened, because, well, nothing about this year is normal.
Big Ten West Predicted Finish
- Wisconsin - 221 points (19 first-place votes)
- Minnesota - 209.5 points (14 first-place votes)
- Iowa - 157 points
- Nebraska - 117 points
- Purdue - 105 points
- Northwestern - 87.5 points (1 first-place vote)
- Illinois - 55 points
Big Ten East Predicted Finish
- Ohio State - 237 points (33 first-place votes)
- Penn State - 204 points (1 first-place vote)
- Michigan - 169 points
- Indiana - 134 points
- Michigan State - 94 points
- Maryland - 76 points
- rutger - 38 points
B1G Championship Game Predictions
- Ohio State over Wisconsin (19)
- Ohio State over Minnesota (13)
- Ohio State over Northwestern (1)
- Penn State over Minnesota (1)
Preseason Offensive Player of the Year Predictions
- Justin Fields, Ohio State QB, 101 points (33 first-place votes)
- Rondale Moore, Purdue WR, 38 points
- Rashod Bateman, Minnesota WR, 33 points (1 first-place vote)
- Tanner Morgan, Minnesota QB, 16 points
- Journey Brown, Penn State RB, 4 points
- Pat Freiermuth, Penn State TE, 4 points
- Wyatt Davis, Ohio State OG, 2 points
- David Bell, Purdue WR, 1 point
- Alaric Jackson, Iowa OT, 1 point
- Josh Myers, Ohio State C, 1 point
- Chris Olave, Ohio State WR, 1 point
- Michael Penix, Indiana QB, 1 point
- Trey Sermon, Ohio State RB, 1 point
Preseason Offensive Player of the Year Predictions
- Who cares? There wasn’t a Minnesota player on them. Click here if matters to you.
The Good
- Hooray for Bateman and Morgan. Too bad we’re probably not going to get to watch them play much (if at all).
The Bad
- I cannot think of a less meaningful preseason poll in the history of meaningless preseason polls. These never matter (see last year’s preseason poll where a bunch of Big Ten media hopped on the Nebraska hype train because, well, rank incompetence comes to mind as a reason). But usually they serve to mark the moment. As a beacon of the coming excitement. Today? It’s just something the already gutted staff of Cleveland.com dropped on a Friday, almost as an afterthought.
- Perhaps that’s because they were asking people to predict a season when we don’t even have a schedule yet? I mean, that’s a pretty good way to make this less consquential in a time when it’s already the least consequential thing out there.
- Seriously, fuck COVID and anyone who doesn’t take it seriously. WEAR A MASK. WASH YOUR HANDS. SOCIALLY DISTANCE WHENEVER POSSIBLE. If you want a weird football season where you at least get to watch Rashod Bateman and Tanner Morgan do fun things, you better act like it.
The LOL
- Someone picked Northwestern to win the West. It’s not going to happen because A) football probably isn’t happening and B) LOLNO.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21523892/Stop_Trying_To_Make_Northwestern_Happen__2_.png)