Preseason projections deliver slap in the face to Gophers basketball

Exhibition games across the college basketball world have already begun, and the Gophers will have two this month against Omaha (Oct. 15 at home) and Creighton (Oct. 23 on the road). Preseason polls and rankings are rolling out daily. Are the Gophers being overlooked?

Preseason projections

Much like football, the Big Ten doesn’t release an official preseason poll. The Columbus Dispatch’s poll has become widely regarded as the unofficial preseason rankings in the conference, and Minnesota landed at No. 13 in this year’s edition.

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There are dozens of ways to rank college basketball teams in 2026, so instead of taking a group of writers’ opinions as gospel, we’re going to compare the poll to current betting odds to win the conference via DraftKings Sportsbook and the current Barttorvik.com projections, which have become one of the best analytical options available.

Team

Columbus Dispatch preseason media poll

Betting odds (via DraftKings)

National Barttorvik rank (Big Ten)

Illinois

1st

+450 or 1st

6th (1st)

Michigan State

2nd

+475 or 2nd

10th (2nd)

Michigan

3rd

+730 or 3rd

11th (3rd)

UCLA

4th

+1225 or 5th

25th (7th)

Nebraska

5th

+940 or 4th

16th (4th)

Purdue

6th

+1450 or 6th

21st (6th)

USC

7th

+2800 or 8th

31st (9th)

Ohio State

8th

+1600 or 7th

18th (5th)

Indiana

9th

+1300 or 9th

29th (8th)

Iowa

10th

+5900 or 13th

46th (11th)

Wisconsin

11th

+4800 or 11th

54th (12th)

Maryland

12th

+3800 or 10th

38th (13th)

Minnesota

13th

+14000 or 14th

78th (17th)

Oregon

14th

+5200 or 12th

32nd (10th)

Washington

15th

+24000 or 15th

65th (14th)

Northwestern

16th

+45000 or 17th

76th (16th)

Rutgers

17th

+26000 or 16th

71st (15th)

Penn State

18th

+50000 or 18th

105th (18th)

If you think the Columbus Dispatch poll was too low on Minnesota, they’re actually higher on their 2026-27 ceiling than the betting odds or Barttorvik.com, which both use analytical models for their rankings.

There are still huge eligibility questions looming over the whole sport and conference. The Gophers are in the middle of that discussion with an Oct. 13 hearing in federal appeals court for…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/preseason-projections-deliver-slap-face-170814627.html

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Publish date : 2026-10-06 17:08:00

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