Michigan gets nod: Wolverines picked ahead of Buckeyes
By
MATT MARKEY
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
The appetite for college football in this part of the country is beyond voracious, and what feeds that beast until the first kickoff six weeks from now are the preseason publications.
These thick and colorful journals are painfully detailed packages of statistics, personnel and projected finishes. They are compiled in March, finalized in April, printed in May, and then hit the bookstands in June and July.
Then the debate ensues.
This is the fodder that fills the breech and allows college football fans to exchange volleys that are fueled only by speculation. The lone common ground in the top yearbooks for 2007 is that Southern California is No. 1 - beyond that there is little solid consensus.
Michigan, 11-2 last season when it went 7-1 in the Big Ten, losing only that 42-39 shootout to Ohio State, is predicted to finish ahead of the Buckeyes in 2007 by all of the major publications.
The general agreement is that Big Ten defending champion Ohio State, 12-1 overall and 8-0 in the conference last season, lost too much when graduation and early exits for the NFL claimed Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Troy Smith, two-time 1,000 yard running back Antonio Pittman, and talented wide receivers Ted Ginn Jr. and Anthony Gonzalez.
Street & Smith's and Athlon did not like the Wolverines or the Buckeyes to win it all in the Big Ten this year, going instead with Wisconsin, a 12-1 team in 2006 and one that plays Ohio State and Michigan on back-to-back weekends in early November.
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