Last year, the media picked the Gophers third in the West, and they went 2-6 in conference play, tying for fifth place. The votes were by 39 writers covering Big Ten football.
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Ohio State and MI both had 12/1 odds from Bovada to win the national championship in mid-January, but the Buckeyes rose to 6/1 in February. The good news is Rutgers plays both IL and Minnesota this season, who were picked directly above Purdue.
Michigan was picked to finish second in the Eastern division, followed by Michigan State, Penn State, Indiana, Maryland and Rutgers.
Ohio State is the overwhelming favorite in the Cleveland.com poll for the East division, with MI close behind.
While this would ordinarily be reason for excitement for OSU fans, to loosely paraphrase Ohio State grad R.L. Stein, readers beware: the Cleveland.com poll has never correctly predicted the Big Ten champions even one time in its six years of existence.
Thankfully Doug Lesmerises of Cleveland.com is always around to pick up the Big Ten’s slack, comprising his own poll of Big Ten media members for their predictions, and on Friday, he released the results. For proof of this, just look at the fact that five teams received first-place votes, including Minnesota. However, unlike 2015, it wasn’t a unanimous decision for Ohio State, but it was still overwhelming.
Clement, who rushed for 949 yards and nine touchdowns while backing up Melvin Gordon in 2014, missed most of last season due to injury but has also earned watch-list honors for the Doak Walker and Maxwell awards over the past few weeks.
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The poll does have its caveats, having never picked a victor in its four years of existence.
