Media like U-M vs. Wisconsin; Izzo likes top recruits
Big Ten football media days are Thursday and Friday in Chicago, so it’s time for the media to weigh in with their 2012 picks. The Big Ten doesn’t do a preseason poll anymore (it was just top 3 in the past anyway), so colleagues Doug Lesmerises and Bob Asmussen put this together. A total of 24 writers voted, two per team. The result? U-M (16 first-place votes) and Wisconsin (19) are picked to win the divisions, with 11 writers picking U-M over Wisconsin in the title game. Seven picked MSU to beat Wisconsin in the title game, and five picked Wisconsin over U-M. Interestingly, all seven voters who picked MSU to get to the title game also picked MSU to win it. Wisconsin’s Montee Ball and MSU’s Will Gholston were picked for offensive and defensive POY, respectively.
Here’s the breakdown:
LEADERS
Team (First-place votes) Points
1. Wisconsin (19) 139
2. Ohio State (5) 125
3. Purdue 79
4. Illinois 72
5. Penn State 65
6. Indiana 24
LEGENDS
Team (First-place votes) Points
1. Michigan (16) 134
2. Michigan State (7) 120
3. Nebraska (1) 104
4. Iowa 72
5. Northwestern 51
6. Minnesota 24
Title-game winner: Michigan over Wisconsin (11 votes).
Others: Michigan State over Wisconsin (7), Wisconsin over Michigan (5),
Wisconsin over Nebraska (1).
Offensive MVP: Montee Ball, Wisconsin (14 votes).
Others: Denard Robinson, Michigan (9), Braxton Miller, Ohio State (1).
Defensive MVP: William Gholston, Michigan State (11 votes).
Others: Kawaan Short, Purdue (5), Johnathan Hankins, Ohio State (3), John
Simon, Ohio State (2), Denicos Allen, Michigan State (1), Chris Borland,
Wisconsin (1), Gerald Hodges, Penn State (1).
And here are this year’s voters (special shout out to the Penn State folks for participating, considering what they have going on):
Bob Asmussen, Champaign News-Gazette; Steve Batterson, Quad City Times; David Briggs, Toledo Blade; Mike Carmin, Lafayette Joournal & Courier; Matt Charboneau, Detroit News; Brian Christopherson, Lincoln Journal Star; Pete DiPrimio, Fort Wayne News-Sentinel; Dustin Dopirak, Bloomington Herald-Times; Chris Emma, Northwestern scout.com; Bob Flounders, Harrisburg Patriot-News; Marcus Fuller, St. Paul Pioneer Press; Teddy Greenstein, Chicago Tribune; Terry Hutchens, Indianapolis Star; Doug Lesmerises, Cleveland Plain-Dealer; Sam McKeown, Omaha World-Herald; Kyle Meinke, Annarbor.com; Phil Miller, Minneapolis Star-Tribune; Marc Morehouse, Cedar Rapids Gazette; Tom Mulhern, Wisconsin State Journal; Jeff Potrykus, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Joe Rexrode, Lansing State Journal; Jeff Rice, Lions 24/7; Mark Snyder, Detroit Free Press; John Supinie, GateHouse News Service
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