B1G tiers and rankings: Where does Washington belong?

The Huskies received middling results during preseason Big Ten poll season. Check out my own rankings.

Big Ten Media Days commenced Tuesday in Indianapolis, which means Big Ten Poll Season commenced recently, too.

The conference itself doesn’t issue a preseason media poll, though a few outlets gathered their own group of voters from across the league’s considerable footprint. 

The consensus: Washington will be a mid-tier team in its inaugural Big Ten season.

Polls conducted by the Kings of the North podcast and Cleveland.com each slotted the Huskies at No. 10 in the 18-team league (just behind No. 9 Rutgers), and the USA Today Network poll found UW at No. 9 (just ahead of Rutgers).

(Full disclosure: I was invited to participate in the Kings of the North poll, but misread the deadline information and missed it. Shame, shame.)

Predictably, the Big Ten’s formal list of preseason honorees did not include any Huskies. Ostensibly a list of the league’s top 12 players, regardless of position, the group includes four Ohio State selections, three from Michigan, two from Oregon and one each from Iowa, Penn State and Rutgers. 

I’m traveling to Indianapolis tomorrow (Wednesday) to cover Washington’s appearance on Thursday, the event’s third and final day. Jedd Fisch will be joined by senior linebacker Carson Bruener, senior safety Kam Fabiculanan and junior running back Jonah Coleman. I’ll pass along as much information as I can gather on the ground in Indy. Grab a subscription today to read it all.

In the meantime, here’s my own preseason Big Ten ranking, with teams separated into tiers.