Michigan ranked #2 in ESPN's Future Big 10 Power Rankings
Not an unexpected spot, but ESPN ranked Michigan #2 in their "Future" Big 10 Power Rankings. You can imagine who is in first. Perhaps #6 will be a bit of a surprise...
They will not be at #12.
I hear that we are also #5 overall, but I don't have an ESPN subscription to confirm.
WIth a great defense and no offense, they'll probably be averaging a 5-4 record in conference over the next few years
Eh, I suppose so.
Why do you say that? Penn State shouldn't be ranked over them because of the sanctions, Iowa doesn't recruit very well and is going to be horrible this year. I guess you could make the case for Rutgers to be over them, but I think they are placed correctly.
Otherwise, the effort is too awkward and arduous when in the open. The discomfort is almost palpable. I'd be permanently irritable too what with masses of people around and numerous "participants" I have to keep track of! No....no - refuge in the weeds. Lots of people playing football, but who's who?
I think Penn State is going to have some trouble recruiting with Rutgers and Maryland in the mix, along with Michigan establishing a pipeline to VA. Used to be, if kids of the East Coast wanted to play football in the Big Ten, PSU was the obvious choice. Plus, it's only about 2.5-3 hours from NJ, 2 hours from Maryland, 3 from Virginia... pretty much the perfect distance to go away to college. Plus, now that Pitt is in a more established conference, they could start to make some waves (yes, I know it is a perenial underachieving oddball). If they could take a few more Western Pennsylvania recruits than they usually do (they always seem to get a few high 4 star Pittsburgh kids), Penn State could be in trouble.
Penn State is recruiting incredibly well considering the sanctions they're under. They're going to be 110% fine, it's still Penn State.
Rutgers and Maryland are the ones who need to be worried. Michigan is making huge cuts into VA and NJ lately, I'm sure OSU is similar, and Penn State has always had a presence. Between those schools and the ACC, Rutgers and Maryland are going to be picking up the scraps in their own state
Don't sleep on rutgers peeps. They have won some games recently. I'd rank them above the sparts personally.
Last year was their window to win anything in the way of titles for probably a long time. They won't overtake Louisville this year, and then they're contending with UM, OSU, and PSU every year following.
Yeah, have fun with that.
Well that's a speed bump in Rutger's national championship aspirations.
according to the most recent Rivals ratings (admittedly a snapshot), Rutgers is third in the B1G.
Isn't that due to them having 17 commitments, kind of like the Kentucky affect. Once everyone else catches up they'll more than likely drop down a lot.
The same "analysis" has USC 6 in the Pac 10 (12)... behind Oregon State. Yep.
I'll vouch for that. Lane Kiffin will run that program into the ground.
Well, they're going to move up from here, but they're currently #39 in recruiting:
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/teamrank/2014/all/all
Last year at this time, I think they were #1.
the way i interpreted it-they rank ohio based on recent success, as a prediction for the future. As you can see, a lot of thought went into the analysis.
For comparison, here's how Massy would preliminarily rate the Big Ten (using their Division I rank, not their rank within the conference), and I included Rutgers and Maryland as they sit right now. That might provide a reasonable baseline expectation for next year. Granted, as there is exactly zero data for this year, this is only an estimate.
| Team | Rating | Est. Wins | Est. Losses |
| Ohio St | 17 | 9.01 | 2.99 |
| Wisconsin | 19 | 8.84 | 3.16 |
| Michigan | 20 | 8.27 | 3.73 |
| Nebraska | 25 | 8.81 | 3.19 |
| Northwestern | 28 | 7.92 | 4.08 |
| Michigan St | 29 | 8.26 | 3.74 |
| Penn St | 32 | 7.82 | 4.18 |
| Rutgers | 48 | 7.88 | 4.13 |
| Iowa | 65 | 4.96 | 7.04 |
| Purdue | 68 | 4.64 | 7.36 |
| Minnesota | 70 | 5.32 | 6.68 |
| Indiana | 76 | 4.65 | 7.35 |
| Maryland | 86 | 4.54 | 7.46 |
| Illinois | 96 | 2.77 | 9.23 |
The interesting thing about this - if you look at it this way - is the considerable gap that would exist between Penn State and Rutgers if the Scarlet Knights were there now, as well as the gap between the ratings of Rutgers and Iowa. As the conference stands, the fact that there is a difference of over thirty positions between what might be the "upper tier" of the conference and everyone else is telling even on this measure.
EDIT: As a reply to MadMonkey below, it has much to do with the estimated chances in individual matchups for each team. We have a few more games which Massey would put close to toss-up range than Nebraska does.
greater estimated losses than Nebraska (at 25)?