By: Ryan Moreland (@ryanmoreland)
The AD Coaches Poll moves on to the home of the defending champions. Despite winning back-to-back National Championships, USC hasn’t won a Conference Championship since they came back. They were favored to do it last season, but Ohio State pulled in front of them. Let’s take a look at how things shook out last season.
Last Season’s Standings
| Conference Rank | Team |
| 1 | Ohio State |
| 2 | USC |
| 3 | Penn State |
| 4 | Michigan State |
| 5 | Michigan |
| 6 | Oregon |
AD Coaches Poll
| Projected Finish | Team | 1st Place Votes |
| 1 | USC | 5 |
| 2 | Ohio State | 1 |
| 3 | Michigan State | – |
| 4 | Penn State | – |
| 5 | Michigan | – |
| 6 | Oregon | – |
USC earned every AD’s top spot except for their own (and they can’t vote for their team). The defending Big10 Champs finished second and picked up a first-place nod. Michigan State was picked to finish third. Last season the Spartans were picked to finish last and ended up in fourth. We will see if they can’t blow up the projections again this season.
Penn State is projected to drop a spot from their finish last season. Michigan was picked 5th but had 1 third-place vote. They could be a team to watch, even if the ADs in the conference disagree. Oregon is picked to remain at the bottom.
Last season the ADs in the Big10 got very little correct. Ohio State was picked to finish 5th and won the conference. Michigan was picked to finish 2nd and dropped to 5th. If this holds this season we could see a lot of shake-up in the Big10. We will see.
