Ohio State the favorite, Nebraska tabbed eighth in Big Ten football preseason media poll

The Buckeyes received 21 of 27 first-place votes in results compiled by cleveland.com, making them strong favorites to finish atop the new 18-team league in a few months. New member Oregon got the other six first-place tallies.

The voting panel includes at least one beat writer from each Big Ten school. Cleveland.com took up poll organizational duties when the league dropped them 14 years ago. Results come ahead of Big Ten Media Days, which kicks off Tuesday from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis and wraps Thursday — the event expanded to three days for the first time as the league added Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA — before everyone disperses to prepare for fall camp.

Penn State (418 points) finished third behind OSU (480) and Oregon (448), followed by defending national champion Michigan (411), Iowa (363), USC (346), Wisconsin (313), Nebraska (293) and Rutgers (249) in the league’s top half.

Voters have generally pegged Nebraska relatively accurately — the Huskers have finished within two spots of their preseason ranking every year except 2019 when Big Red was named the West co-favorite and ended sixth. NU a year ago was projected to finish fifth in the now-defunct West Division and ended as one of four teams at the bottom with 3-6 Big Ten records.

The Huskers had finished worse than their forecast in 10 of 12 polls before coach Matt Rhule arrived last season.

Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel — one of the few proven quarterbacks in the Big Ten this year — is the runaway Preseason Offensive Player of the Year with 22 first-place votes while Ohio State running back Quinshon Judkins is the only other player to receive multiple tallies.

Prognosticating for Preseason Defensive Player of the Year was far closer. Michigan cornerback Will Johnson led with 44 points (eight first-place votes) followed by Ohio State receiver Emeka Egbuka who garnered no first-place votes but 21 points. Next was Iowa linebacker Jay Higgins at 29 (five), Michigan defensive lineman Mason Graham at 24 (four) and Ohio State defensive end TJ Tuimoloau at 20 (four). Also receiving first-place votes were OSU defensive back Caleb Downs, Penn State D-end Abdul Carter and Ohio State D-lineman Jack Sawyer.

Media forecasts have fared well of late with individual honors. The 2022 poll nailed both eventual winners and did the same with Ohio State receiver Marvin Harrison a year ago.

Team prognostications have hardly been gospel. Of the first 13 media polls since 2011 — when Nebraska joined the league and the conference added a championship game and scrapped a coaches preseason poll — the cleveland.com iteration has correctly predicted just four champions (Ohio State in 2017, 2018 and 2020 along with Michigan last year). Just once, in 2017, did it accurately foresee both title-game participants.

The full predictions, by order of finish:

1. Ohio State (21 first place)

Dillon Gabriel, Oregon QB: 74 points (22 first-place votes)

Emeka Egbuka, Ohio State WR: 21 points

Quinshon Judkins, Ohio State RB: 20 points (2)

TreVeyon Henderson, Ohio State WR: 10 points

Will Howard, Ohio State QB: 6 points (1)

Colston Loveland, Michigan tight end: 5 points (1)

Kyle Monangai, Rutgers RB: 4 (1)

Will Johnson, Michigan DB: 44 points (8 first-place votes)

Jay Higgins, Iowa LB: 29 points (5)

Mason Graham, Michigan DL: 24 points (4)

JT Tuimoloau, Ohio State DL: 20 points (4)

Caleb Downs, Ohio State DB: 18 points (3)

Abdul Carter, Penn State DL: 18 points (2)

Jack Sawyer, Ohio State DL: 3 points (1)