Daniel Olinger: Finish third or higher in the Big Ten West
Some would say this is placing expectations too low, other might say it’s too high. Thus is the nature of discourse. There are four real contenders for the division crown in NU, Io_a, Wisconsin and Minnesota. It would be understandable for the ‘Cats to take a small step back given their massive loss of production heading into this season combined with all that swung right for them last season in turnover differential and in close games. But falling back to the ranks of Illinois, Purdue and Nebraska like they did in 2019 is something that this program should and admittedly wants to fully mature out of.