While Nebraska Football fans are coming towards the end of July with some high hopes, it appears the conference media is not buying in just yet. The Huskers have a lot of questions heading into the season and it doesn’t appear the conference media thinks those answers are going to be answered in a positive way. In fact, the Big Ten media has just released their projected standings and Nebraska is expected to finish third. This isn’t third in the entire conference, but third in the Big Ten West.
Nebraska football fails to place first for fifth straight season
As the Lincoln Journal Star reports, the overwhelming consensus among the Big Ten media is that the Nebraska football team will miss first place for the fifth straight season. 38 different members of the media who participated in the Cleveland.com preseason football poll have said they don’t believe the Huskers are even going to be able to finish second in the division.
This is a bit of a frustrating development for those who thought the Huskers were going to be getting a bit more positive attention this season. In the same poll in 2016, Nebraska was picked to finish second in the west behind Iowa.
This particular poll might not be an official Big Ten Media poll, but it is the closest thing to it, because the conference doesn’t do this kind of poll on its own.
The Cleveland.com poll has stood as the official poll for the conference for quite a while now.
The poll might originate out of Cleveland but this isn’t a situation where people who aren’t familiar with the Cornhuskers are making predictions. BTN’s Gerry DiNardo is among those who is quite skeptical of the Huskers. He was asked how surprised he would be if Nebraska managed to win the division.
The analyst said he would be “medium to high” levels of surprised if the Nebraska football team managed to make the Big Ten Conference Championship game.
Nebraska football will have a lot to prove
It comes as no surprise that Wisconsin was picked by the same media to finish first in the Big Ten West. The big surprise in the poll is that Northwestern has been picked to finish second.
The Huskers will then finish third and Iowa is predicted to finish fourth in the division.
In the Big Ten East, Ohio State is the runaway favorite to win their division. Penn State is supposed to finish second and Michigan has been picked to finish third. When it comes to picking the team that will win the entire conference, Ohio State got 29 votes. Nebraska football will have a tough road to hoe in order to prove the voters wrong.
