The Crapital Times in Madison was kind of enough to compile this:

The Sporting News
1. Ohio State
2. Michigan
3. Purdue
4. Wisconsin
5. Penn State
6. Iowa
7. Minnesota
8. Illinois
9. Michigan State
10. Indiana
11. Northwestern

Street & Smith's
1. Michigan
2. Ohio State
3. Wisconsin
4. Minnesota
5. Iowa
6. Penn State
7. Purdue
8. Northwestern
9. Illinois
10. Michigan State
11. Indiana.

Lindy's
1. Ohio State
2. Michigan
3. Purdue
4. Wisconsin
5. Iowa
6.Penn State
7.Minnesota
8.Illinois
9.Michigan State
10. Northwestern
11. Indiana

Athlon Sports
1. Ohio State
2. Michigan
3. Wisconsin
4. Purdue
5. Penn State
6. Minnesota
7. Iowa
8. Illinois
9. Michigan State
10. Indiana
11. Northwestern.

Phil Steele's
1. Ohio State
2. Michigan
3. Purdue
4. Wisconsin
5. Penn State
6. Illinois
7. Minnesota
8. Iowa
9. Northwestern
10. Michigan State
11. Indiana

Dang, Buck,

Looks like another "always the bridesmaid" years for Barry's boys... frown

Looks like they expect Purdue to be good, huh? Who knew? I'd love to see one of the little guys (aka anyone but Ohio State and Michigan) sneak up and grab the title. Go Hoosiers! Go Wildcats! Go Gophers! Go Boilermakers!

George -- you forgot "Go Badgers!" (although not to pat them on the backs too much, but they are the ONLY Big Ten team to win 3 Rose Bowls in the last ten years -- maybe they're the big boys now too!)

Purdue will have a good team -- returning a bunch of starters -- but their main problem is their schedule, playing at Michigan, OSU and Wisconsin. that's pretty tough! Their other Big Ten away game is against their archrivals in Bloomington.

[ June 18, 2003, 01:34 PM: Message edited by: DCBucky ]

Yep, looks like my alma mater, Indiana, will again battle it out for 10th place. Seems like only yesterday we were in---what, 6th place? Oh well, if nothing else, it's an easy ticket to buy so keep that in mind this Fall if you want to road trip to Bloomington!

IndyMike, your Hoosiers may not finish in the upper echelon of the Big Ten (again) but at least they finally have a decent coach in Gerry DiNardo, who did a terrific job at LSU before he was unfairly ousted IMHO (I'd say he's IU's best gridiron coach since Lee Corso but that's probably not saying much )....DiNardo's boys may have only won three games last year and are likely to be in for another tough season (particularly in light of the fact that they began last month's spring practice with only SIX seniors on their entire roster on scholarship eek! ) but if they can upgrade their recruiting efforts and get some talent to surround Notre Dame transfer QB Matt LoVecchio (who has two years of eligibility remaining) look for Gerry to have them in contention for a bowl berth in the not too distant future....that would seem like quite an accomplishment given IU's record during the past two decades but if a Northwestern team can make it to the Rose Bowl then anything's possible.

Welcome back GC,we've missed you. :cool: You're right about DiNardo,and optimism is running (comparatively)high in Hoosierland.I'm a little curious about your Corso comparison.I like Lee as a person,and I've always thought of him as a fairly decent coach.Just not sure that was the case during his stint in Bloomington. :confused: I was a student for part of the time,and the only memory that remains of those days for me was his first game,when he promised a big suprise for the fans.So prior to the home opener,one of those Big Red double decker busses (like you see in England)pulls on to the field,and the entire team charges off of it and runs to the sideline.That was the most energy they showed all day,and a few hours later another loss was in the record books.

To me, the best IU coach since Pont's magic run for the Roses in '67,has to be Mallory.I know he faded at the end,but for a while IU football actually had a degree of respectability.There was even a stretch where bowl appearances almost became routine,I remember living in Germany and actually being able to catch the Hoosiers in various bowl appearances on AFN tv.And even more amazing,they even won some of those games. wink

[ June 19, 2003, 07:40 AM: Message edited by: Tim ]