NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 23: GameDay host Kirk Herbstreit is seen during ESPN's College GameDay show at Times Square on September 23, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)Now that we finally know what the Big Ten’s conference-only schedule will look like this year, it’s only right that ESPN updates its win projections for each team.
ESPN analyst Bill Connelly released his initial Big Ten win projections earlier this afternoon. As you’d expect, Ohio State is the favorite to win the Big Ten East with roughly seven wins.
Michigan, meanwhile, is currently projected to win just four games this season. That’d be quite disappointing for Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines.
Moving over to the Big Ten West, the current favorite is Wisconsin. However, Minnesota only trails Wisconsin in this projection by one win. Connelly admit the Golden Gophers could see their win projection increase if superstar wideout Rashod Bateman is cleared to play.
Here’s every Big Ten team’s win projection:
Initial B1G win projections, per SP+:
East: Ohio St 7.1, Penn St 6.0, Mich 4.3, Indiana 4.0, Mich St 3.2, Maryland 1.9, Rutgers 1.3
West: Wisc 6.2, Minn 5.1, Iowa 4.3, Nebraska 3.5, Purdue 3.4, NWern 3.2, Illinois 2.5
— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) September 19, 2020
Maryland and Rutgers are projected to be the two worst teams in the conference. That isn’t’ too surprising since both programs are still in a rebuilding phase.
One thing to monitor this season is which superstar players are given the green light to return to the gridiron. For example, the Buckeyes expect to have Wyatt Davis and Shaun Wade on the field this season. On the flip side, the Nittany Lions are waiting to see if star linebacker Micah Parsons will return to school.
Do you agree with the current win projections from ESPN?
