Iowa Hawkeyes 2nd in the Big Ten West 2022 media preseason poll

The Big Ten preseason media poll has officially released and the conference doesn’t seem to have too many believers in things getting upside down or going haywire. There is a belief that each division, the East and West, are really a two or three team race when all is said and done.

It should come as no shock that the West features the Iowa Hawkeyes and  Wisconsin Badgers as potential favorites. The third team receiving votes, the Minnesota Golden Gophers, are a bit of a dark horse but have proven to find a way to win games and stay competitive late in the season in the Big Ten West.

While they are the defending champions of the West, the Hawkeyes only received three votes to win the West. In what feels like the much more wide open side of the Big Ten, it feels as this gap could prove to be a little bit wide when the conference shakes out in late November.

Preseason media poll for Big Ten football is out.

WEST
1. Wisconsin (31 first-place votes)
2. Iowa (3)
3. Minnesota (2)
4. Purdue
5. Nebraska
6. Illinois
7. Northwestern

EAST
1. Ohio State (36)
2. Michigan
3. Penn State
4. Michigan State
5. Maryland
6. Rutgers
7. Indiana

— Chad Leistikow (@ChadLeistikow) July 25, 2022

On the other side of the conference, the media has unanimously chosen the Ohio State Buckeyes to win the West. They did lose to the eventual overall Big Ten champions, the Michigan Wolverines last year, but all signs very strongly point to the Buckeyes being not just the strongest contender to win the Big Ten, but potentially the entire country for a national championship.

One team that didn’t receive any votes and has some momentum surrounding them is the Purdue Boilermakers. They have been gaining some steam the last few years and while they may be a little bit off of taking home the Big Ten West, they are certainly a team that can be expected to make noise and play a vital part in determining either side of the conference by upsetting teams or stealing a game they shouldn’t have won.

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