Cleveland.com B1G predictions In

Submitted by jimmyshi03 on

Presumably this will be regurgitated at media days in Chicago, but Cleveland.com did their media poll for both divisions and OPOY and DPOY.

Of note: The poll is six years old and has been wrong each year. 

BIG TEN EAST

1. Ohio State, 260 points (34 first-place votes)

2. Penn State, 231.5 (7)

3. Michigan, 192 (1)

4. Michigan State, 128

5. Indiana, 114

6. Maryland, 100.5

7. Rutgers, 38

(first-place votes equal more than 38 because of some ties for first)

BIG TEN WEST

1. Wisconsin, 259 points (31 first-place votes)

2. Northwestern, 219 (5)

3. Nebraska, 176.5 (2)

4. Iowa, 164.5

5. Minnesota, 131

6. Purdue, 57

6. Illinois, 57

Here were the predictions for the Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis on Dec. 2.

Ohio State over Wisconsin (22)

Ohio State over Northwestern (5)

Ohio State over Nebraska (2)

Wisconsin over Ohio State (3)

Wisconsin over Penn State (1)

Penn State over Wisconsin (4)

Michigan over Wisconsin (1)

OPOY was Barkley, DPOY was Tyquan Lewis. No Michigan player was in the top 10 for OPOY. Rashan Gary (third) and Maurice Hurst (8th) each received first place votes for DPOY. 

A State Fan

July 21st, 2017 at 1:00 PM ^

If MSU is in 4th place in the division, I will be very happy with that.

I mean, it could still mean we got blown out by the top 3 teams, but hey, it probably means we don't lose to Maryland and Indiana again. Wheeeee.

OwenGoBlue

July 21st, 2017 at 2:07 PM ^

That would be fun. 4-8 feels more like the bottom of their range if you look at the schedule. Without taking a major step forward in any way it's easy to squint and see 5-7 wins just by having a run game and playing two MAC schools, bad ND, Rutgers, Indiana, Maryland and Minnesota. Win 5 of those and upset, say, NW or Iowa and that gets them bowl eligible. Four conference wins might be good for 4th in the East. 4-8 and 6-6 are both irrelevant seasons so hope you can enjoy it either way!

DrMantisToboggan

July 21st, 2017 at 4:05 PM ^

4-8 sounds like the bottom of their range? I'm sorry but this team has no floor. Winning 0 games is a distinct possibility. I'm not saying that it's the likely outcome, but there's not a single sure fire win on their schedule. They are putting a worse product on the field this year than the product that got them 3-9 last year. Think of a team that is only good enough for 3-9 and then gets slapped with serious NCAA sanctions. That's what MSU will look like this fall with missing so many scholarship players. 

 

Mark could always pull 6-6 out of his ass because he is a great coach. However, 4-8 feels a lot more like the most likely outcome, certainly not the floor. 1-11 would not surprise me. Notre Dame will squish MSU. I'd be surprised if they win 2 games out of Iowa, NW, Maryland. Indiana has a very solid defense this year and 2 receivers that won't be checked by MSU's swiss cheese secondary. 4 wins against WMU, BGSU, MINN, and Rutgers seem possible, but I could  easily see them dropping two of those games (WMU has a real good defense and great rushing attack coming back, MINN game is in MN).

TrueBlue2003

July 21st, 2017 at 11:37 PM ^

Maryland, in which they're favored as of now.

And home against Iowa is probably closer to a tossup than @Minn.

In any case, you're probably a game too low on your ceiling and range (let's call that the 80/20 percentile range, and probably 1.5 low on your O/U.

They're going to be bad, but they have about as easy a schedule as you can have as a B1G East team.

OwenGoBlue

July 21st, 2017 at 5:17 PM ^

I guess I'm higher on the guys they do have left and lower on the teams on their schedule, because 6-6 wouldn't take a great coaching job to me (though that would likely mean they avoided injuries). There's also a part of me that is already annoyed at hypothetical future LSJ articles touting the MSU coaches for pulling off a 5-6 win season, so that could be influencing me. You're right though that there's no floor given the lack of depth, I just think 4-6 wins is the (/my arbitrary) most likely range of MSU outcomes and 4 is at the bottom of that tight set.

YoOoBoMoLloRoHo

July 21st, 2017 at 2:39 PM ^

They need to avoid injuries with their desperate lack of depth - but the pounding on the starters (especially D) raises the risk of injuries above average. Their D could be dreadful based on last season and losing 6 of top 7 DBs along with their 4 best talents in front 7 (McDowell, Reschke, Robertson, King).

A State Fan

July 21st, 2017 at 1:20 PM ^

6th? I'll eat a lemon if that happens.

If you look at MSUs roster, despite the loss of the guys from last years freshman class, it's still a roster that has a decent amount of talent. The biggest issue will be DEs, as I think we only have 3-4 on the roster and 2 were former walk-ons. But MSU definitely has more talent on the roster than Maryland/Rutgers/probably Indiana

I'm hoping that last year was a 'everything that could go wrong did' kinda thing, and this is a bounce back, hopefully to 7-5 or so.

BigBlue02

July 21st, 2017 at 1:30 PM ^

What do you mean by "decent amount of talent"? Unless Dantonio can pull a QB out if his hat, that defense isn't good enough (and doesn't have Narduzzi) to save them. Lewerke hasn't proved anything other than he needs to drink more milk, so I don't see you guys getting to 7 wins. I also don't think you definitely have more talent than Maryland.

clarkiefromcanada

July 21st, 2017 at 1:49 PM ^

I think Lewerke might not be the problem; he's probably serviceable. The problem will be keeping him upright and/or healthy. The loss of red-locked/dismissed players, particularly on offense will, along with the loss of Reschke will be quite significant.

YoOoBoMoLloRoHo

July 21st, 2017 at 6:35 PM ^

They have something like 69-70 scholarship players and they lost 15 talented athletes from the squad that just went 3-9. Not an unlucky 3-9 - they last almost every game by 2 scores. I see only two players (Allen and Scott) who would start for UM. The D will rely on 7-9 starters that wouldn't make the 2-deep for UM this fall. If they suffer a few injuries in certain areas, it will take duct tape and bailing wire to keep the team functional. Dantonio is a heckuva coach, but he needs a ton of good luck to threaten 6-6.

Perkis-Size Me

July 21st, 2017 at 3:24 PM ^

I'm surprised that in the five years Meyer has been at OSU, he has one Big Ten title to his name. A national title as well, granted, but I think most people were expecting him to win the Big Ten almost every year that he was here. 

The one knock against Meyer so far (I suppose if there is any kind of knock) is that when he loses, its generally at the worst time for a loss. Two end of season losses to MSU where there's essentially no time to make up ground, and a loss to an upstart PSU team that would not lose in-conference again. 

I guess then that it's good he has only one conference title. Among other things, it means that the rest of the conference is slowly starting to catch up. 

BoFlex

July 21st, 2017 at 4:29 PM ^

Well, if Ohio State's AD had chosen to self-impose a postseason ban in for their 2011 season, Urban would have probably gone to the B1G Championship in his first season in 2012.

There's even a chance that they would have gone on to face Notre Dame in the BCS NC if they got past #12 Nebraska (10-2) in the B1GCG... The Darkest Timeline.

Perkis-Size Me

July 21st, 2017 at 3:18 PM ^

I'm not buying the PSU hype (yet). 

I will credit them for beating OSU last year. That win is legit however you slice it. Whether you think the win was a fluke, it's far better than anything Michigan has done against OSU lately. But I still don't buy into McSorely throwing up Hail Marys as being a sustainable offense through a whole season. That's all he does. Eventually he'll have the kind of game where he gets picked off four times. 

I've got to respect Barkley, but that's about it. While their schedule outside of playing us and OSU is pretty manageable, I wouldn't be surprised to see them crumble under the expectations. A lot of their wins last year were ugly wins against even uglier teams.