The writers at 247Sports predicted the entire Big Ten football season yesterday including standings, champion, coach of the year, game of the year and storylines to watch and had the Badgers winning the West Division and playing Ohio State in the conference championship for the third time in the last four years.
.@247Sports Media Days: Big Ten beat writers vote on order of finish, awards and the conference's top storylineshttps://t.co/HikswH1nbT pic.twitter.com/IiTyn5QQT6
— 247Sports (@247Sports) July 7, 2020
The writers had Paul Chryst’s team winning the division over Minnesota in second place, Iowa in third and then a big gap before Nebraska, Purdue, Northwestern and Illinois.
Their championship prediction? A unanimous selection of Ohio State over Wisconsin yet again.
And if the Ohio State love wasn’t apparent already, they had Badger coach Paul Chryst at No. 2 in the end-of-season Coach of the Year rankings behind Ryan Day of Ohio State.
The Badgers also appeared in some of their big storylines to watch this season–those being the parity in the West Division (or lack thereof) and whether the Badgers will finally release their grasp of the division to Minnesota after the two teams battled for the division crown late last season.
Despite the (understandable) Buckeye love, 247Sports’ preseason poll sees the Badgers favorably even with many of their key contributors from 2019 gone to the NFL or graduation. If you ask me, given the turnover at key positions and the Buckeyes’ annual spot in the nation’s top-5 teams, this outcome would be a successful one for the Badgers.
A Big Ten Championship is obviously the goal, but winning the West Division and beating Notre Dame and Minnesota would be a favorable outcome even if Justin Fields and the Buckeyes win the conference for the fourth year in a row.