AP Releases Preseason Top 25: Six Big Ten Teams Make the List

Congrats to Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Iowa on being an AP Top 25 team before the season starts!

The NCAA reported the poll on their website. They also noted the following:

No matter what happens on the field, the next AP Poll this season will look different. Though voters were able to consider all Division I teams in the preseason poll, voters can only rank teams that are scheduled to play going forward. So teams in the Big Ten, Pac-12, MAC and Mountain West, along with other schools that aren’t playing this fall because of COVID-19, will not be in the AP Poll the rest of the season.

Voters got to vote for them for one week. For some reason that I don’t quite understand. Nothing makes sense right now.

They will not make the list the rest of the season because Big Ten leadership decided not to consult the views of athletic directors when determining on whether to have a season. The athletic directors spent five months trying to find ways to make a season work and in the end they weren’t consulted.

Athletic directors weren’t a part of the zoom meetings that had the Presidents and Chancellors. Commissioner Warren was the voice of the athletic directors as reported by Sam McKewon of the Omaha World-Herald.

I’m sure he really stood up for them. Insert sarcasm font.

Understandably, there is zero incentive to stand up and fight for a season against the wishes of his bosses. The Athletic Director at Iowa is not going to have problems fighting for a season against the wishes of a President or Chancellor from Maryland. In the case of Bill Moos, he had the backing of both his President and Chancellor.

The fact that they didn’t have any Athletic Directors in the meeting likely means they were not even considering having a season.

Regardless, congrats to the six Big Ten teams who made the AP Preseason Top 25!