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Just hours after the final football game of the 2015-16 cycle, we're already looking ahead to next season.
Bill Connelly's 2016 pre-season S&P rankings are out, and Kevin Wilson's squad comes in at the Big Ten's 10th-best team heading into spring ball and 56th nationally. While that might not sound like much in the way of expectation for a Hoosiers team looking to replace Nate Sudfeld and Jordan Howard, it's effectively a projection that Indiana might make bowl trips in consecutive seasons since 1990 & 1991. Indiana's ranked ahead of 6 teams on the 2016 schedule (Maryland, Rutgers, Purdue, Wake Forest, Ball State, FIU).
You can check out the full rankings here.The Big Ten's breakout chart is below.
Overall Rank | School | Projected S&P+ |
6 | Michigan | 19.3 |
14 | Ohio State | 16.4 |
22 | Michigan State | 13.5 |
26 | Nebraska | 11.6 |
28 | Penn State | 11.3 |
37 | Wisconsin | 8.3 |
38 | Iowa | 8.1 |
42 | Minnesota | 7.0 |
46 | Northwestern | 5.1 |
56 | Indiana | 3.9 |
62 | Maryland | 2.9 |
76 | Illinois | 0.4 |
87 | Rutgers | -3.1 |
88 | Purdue | -3.1 |