What They’re Saying: Preseason publications weigh in on 2025-26 Big Ten outlook

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The 2025-26 college basketball season is around the corner. Preseason magazines are hitting newsstands, KenPom’s ratings have been released, and the official unofficial Big Ten poll hit the internet.

With the season so close, we rounded up Big Ten projections from nine different sources to gauge the temperature of the Big Ten.

Michigan was picked second in the media poll, and comes in second in this exercise, ranked as high as 1st in the conference (Torvik) or as low as 4th (KenPom).

Our aggregate rankings include the following sources:

• Big Ten Media Poll
• KenPom
• Bart Torvik’s T-Rank
• Blue Ribbon
• Lindy’s
• Basket Under Review
• Evan Miya
• The Athletic
• KenPom’s HUMAN Poll

Most All-Big Ten lists centered around Braden Smith, Trey Kaufman-Renn, Yaxel Lendeborg, Donovan Dent and Bennett Stirtz as the First Team All-Conference projection.

In the middle of the league, there’s significant disagreement, with eight teams receiving a pick as high as 5th and as low as 9th. There’s at least a six-pick range for Oregon, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Iowa, Indiana, USC, and Washington.

Iowa and Washington both had the broadest range of outcomes among prognosticators. The Hawkeyes were picked as high as 4th (The Athletic) and as low as 13th (KenPom), while Washington’s range was from 5th (The Athletic) to 14th (Torvik, HUMAN).

Only five teams in the league were picked in the top ten from every source: Purdue, Michigan, Illinois, UCLA, and Michigan State.

Here’s a rundown of key takeaways from the preseason publications:

Blue Ribbon

• Blue Ribbon predicts the order of finish in the Big Ten as follows: Purdue, Michigan, UCLA, Illinois, Wisconsin, Oregon, Iowa, Michigan State, Indiana, Washington, Ohio State, USC, Maryland, Nebraska, Northwestern, Minnesota, Rutgers and Penn State.
• Purdue’s Braden Smith is the Blue Ribbon pick for Big Ten and national player of the year.
• The preseason Big Ten all-conference team selected by Blue Ribbon is Smith, Trey Kaufman-Renn, Donovan Dent, Yaxel Lendeborg and Bennett Stirtz.
• The top three Big Ten backcourts are Purdue, UCLA and Wisconsin.
• The top three Big Ten frontcourts are Michigan, Purdue and Oregon.
• Yaxel Lendeborg is projected as a First Team All-American along with Smith, Tahaad Pettiford, Alex Condon, and JT Toppin.

KenPom

• KenPom, like Torvik, rates USC higher than most human prognosticators. KenPom’s metrics had USC ranked 6th, while they were only 12th in the Big Ten poll and 11th in overall ranking.
• KenPom ranks Michigan lower, placing the Wolverines 4th in the league — behind UCLA and Illinois — compared to most other projections.
• Pomeroy did add a coaching component to the model, which rates May favorably.

Lindy’s

• Lindy’s picked Purdue to win the Big Ten, followed by Michigan, UCLA, Oregon, Illinois, Michigan State, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Indiana, Washington, Maryland, USC, Nebraska, Northwestern, Minnesota, Rutgers and Penn State.
• Nine Big Ten teams are ranked in the Lindy’s preseason 40, which is topped by No. 1 Houston: Purdue (No. 2), Michigan (No. 4), UCLA (No. 16), Oregon (No. 17), Illinois (No. 23), Michigan State (No. 25), Iowa (No. 31), Wisconsin (No. 33) and Ohio State (No. 38).
• Four Big Ten players earned Lindy’s preseason All-American honors. Purdue’s Braden Smith and Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg earned first team honors, UCLA’s Donovan Dent is second team and Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz is third team.
• Lendeborg is ranked No. 2 on Lindy’s top 150 players list.

Basket Under Review

• Basket Under Review (powered by the Three Man Weave) slots Michigan second, but in Tier 2 along with UCLA and Illinois.
• Yaxel Lendeborg is picked as Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, voted on the Big Ten First Team and All-Newcomer team.
• The All-Newcomers team features Lendeborg, Donovan Dent, Bennett Stirtz, Chad Baker-Mazara and Tucker DeVries.
• The B.U.R. All-Big Ten teams are:
  • First Team: Smith, Dent, Stirtz, Lendeborg, Kaufman-Renn
  • Second Team: Blackwell, Martinelli, DeVries, Ivisic, Bittle
  • Third Team: Thornton, Boswell, Baker-Mazara, Yates, Mast

The Athletic

• Michigan is in a “title contenders” tier with Purdue. Moore writes: “A bet on talent and outside-the-box roster building. Last year, it was a question of whether May could play two 7-footers together, but the Wolf/Goldin frontcourt became one of the best in college basketball. This season, May might try to prove he can play a frontcourt that goes 6-foot-9, 6-foot-9, 7-foot-3. May employs lots of switching defensively and could come up with a scheme that makes this work and keeps Mara in the paint.”