The Big Ten Media Preseason Poll (feat. BSB!)

Bite-Sized Bison received its first invitation to contribute to the annual Big Ten Media Preseason Poll! Here are both polls and the rationale for BSB's selections.

For some time now, the Big Ten Media Preseason Poll has been run by longtime journalist Doug Lesmerises, who spent many years at Cleveland.com before striking out on his own and launching Kings of the North with former The Athletic writer Bill Landis. Both were covering Ohio State during my time on that beat in 2018-19. If you’ve read a Big Ten Media Preseason Poll in the last several years, Lesmerises has organized the voting for it, not the conference.

This year, 54 voters contributed – two beat writers from most programs’ beats (at least one from every program’s beat), plus 20 national contributors – and I was honored to be one of them.

Below, I’m going to compare the poll I submitted as one of the 54 voters to the eventual consensus poll that was released this morning (Monday).

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Below is the Big Ten Media Preseason Poll. Keep in mind this is where the media believes teams will finish the season in the standings, not necessarily how good they are.

Source: Kings of the North

And below is the Bite-Sized Bison preseason poll (with the difference noted next to each team):

1. Penn State

2. Oregon (+1)

3. Ohio State (-1)

4. Indiana (+2)

5. Michigan

6. Illinois (-2)

7. Iowa (+2)

8. Nebraska

9. Minnesota (+2)

10. USC (-3)

11. Washington (-1)

12. Michigan State (+1)

13. Wisconsin (-1)

14. Rutgers (+1)

15. UCLA (-1)

16. Purdue (+2)

17. Maryland (-1)

18. Northwestern (-1)

I also brought back the standings bands chart, which adds some nuance to a simple list. For example, I could see Indiana finishing 4th in the Big Ten or as low as 7th.

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Setting the Scene

• That fourth spot in the standings is a bit of a Holy Grail. As part of this poll, Big Ten media were asked the number of teams that would represent the Big Ten in the College Football Playoff. 65% thought four teams. That means, according to both of these polls, that Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois will be competing for that last spot in the Playoff.

• There are some clear tiers in the chart above, in terms of anticipated standings, but these are my tiers, in terms of anticipated quality:

  • Tier 1: Penn State, Oregon, Ohio State

  • Tier 2: Indiana, Michigan, Illinois

  • Tier 3: Iowa, Nebraska, USC, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin

  • Tier 4: Michigan State, UCLA, Rutgers

  • Tier 5: Purdue, Maryland, Northwestern

Rationale for Rankings

Alright, let’s get to the fun part: rationale. Not every team will be discussed, but the teams near the top of the projected standings and the teams with the greatest difference between the Big Ten media and BSB polls will be.

One key piece of BSB analysis this offseason I found myself leaning on was previewing the conference’s offensive lines. You can read that here.