SP+ B1G 2022 preseason rankings breakdown

Here’s a breakdown of how the B1G looks based on 2022 SP+ preseason rankings.

This first section splits the teams by division and shows: overall SP+ ranking, SP+ predicted conference wins (SP+ predicted overall wins)

EAST

1 Ohio St   #3  7.7 wins (10.4)

2 Michigan   #6  6.7 (9.6)

3 Penn St   #13  5.8 (8.2)

4 Michigan St   #15  5.6 (8.2)

5 Maryland   #54  3.4 (5.5)

6 Rutgers   #80  2.0 (4.2)

7 Indiana   #86  2.0 (3.4)

WEST

1 Wisconsin   #17  5.6 (8.4)

2 Iowa   #27  5.1 (7.6)

3 Minnesota   #31  5.3 (8.1)

4 Purdue   #34  5.1 (7.6)

5 Nebraska   #44  4.9 (6.9)

6 Illinois   #79  2.3 (4.4)

7 Northwestern   #89  1.6 (3.5)

OBSERVATIONS:

• We all know there’s great disparity within the East Division, but look at that enormous gap between the top 4 and the bottom 2, with only Maryland nestled in between. If Maryland finishes anywhere but 5th in the division, we know some crazy things have happened.
• To build on that, the gap between 4th & 5th in the East (MSU & Maryland) is so big that FIVE teams in the West fit in that gap! The West could be a wild hodge-podge of a race this season.

 

OFFENSIVE RANKINGS

Ohio St   1

Michigan   6

Michigan St   20

Maryland   29

Purdue   45

Penn St   48

Nebraska   53

Wisconsin   57

Minnesota   59

Iowa   63

Rutgers   96

Indiana   98

Illinois   104

Northwestern   107

OBSERVATIONS:

• The 4 dregs of the conference have awful offenses,
• and most of the rest are mediocre.
• Ohio St & Michigan should far & away have the best offenses in the conference. (Are we in for unprecedented explosiveness for the 2022 edition of The Game?)

 

DEFENSIVE RANKINGS

Wisconsin   5

Penn St   6

Iowa   8

Minnesota   9

Ohio St   15

Michigan   17

Michigan St   20

Purdue   32

Nebraska   33

Illinois   42

Rutgers   56

Northwestern   60

Indiana   67

Maryland   89

 

OBSERVATIONS:

• WOW, the defensive rankings look a lot different than offensive! 4 of the top 10; 7 of the top 20. Even the offensive dregs have at-least mediocre defenses.
• Ten teams are regarded by SP+ to have a better defense than offense. TEN! And in many cases it’s not even close.
• MSU is ranked 20th at both offense & defense, so that leaves only 3 teams whose offense is expected to be better than the defense: Ohio St, Michigan & Maryland. That’s it. Everybody else is ‘defense first.’

Here are the 10 teams whose defense is more highly-regarded than its offense:

Penn St: #48 offense; #6 defense – not even close

Wisconsin: #57 offense; #5 defense – even worse

Iowa: #63 offense; #8 defense – are we getting warm yet? Nope.

Minnesota: #59 offense; #9 defense – will any of you get a first down?

Purdue: #45 offense; #32 defense – ahh…relative balance

Nebraska: #53 offense; #33 defense – they might out-hit us

Illinois: #104 offense; #42 defense – they’ll need the defense to prevent from getting blown out

Rutgers: #96 offense; #56 defense – ditto

Indiana: #98 offense; #67 defense – ditto the ditto

Northwestern: #107 offense; #60 defense – get the idea?

 

The 3 “aberrations”:

Ohio St: #1 offense; #15 defense

Michigan: #6 offense; #17 defense

Maryland: #29 offense; #89 defense

 

B1G average rankings

Offense: 56th

Defense: 33rd

The average rank of the 10 teams listed above:

Offense: 73rd

Defense: 32nd

 

Are we to expect a lot of sloppy slugfests throughout the conference this season? We won’t see as much of that with our teams because we’re the aberrations.

• Only 3 games this season will involve battles between Ohio St, Michigan & Maryland; safe to say these will be among the 3 highest-scoring games in B1G play.
• There are 39 conference games that involve none of those 3 teams; those 39 are bound to produce a handful of epic piles of B1G turd. (see: PSU vs. Illinois.) ...sickos. ;-)

 

…LET’S FRICKIN PLAY SOME BALL!!!