Preseason projections deliver slap in the face to Gophers basketball

Exhibition games across the college basketball world have already begun, and the Gophers will have two this month against Omaha (Oct. 15 at home) and Creighton (Oct. 23 on the road). Preseason polls and rankings are rolling out daily. Are the Gophers being overlooked?

Preseason projections

Much like football, the Big Ten doesn’t release an official preseason poll. The Columbus Dispatch’s poll has become widely regarded as the unofficial preseason rankings in the conference, and Minnesota landed at No. 13 in this year’s edition.

There are dozens of ways to rank college basketball teams in 2026, so instead of taking a group of writers’ opinions as gospel, we’re going to compare the poll to current betting odds to win the conference via DraftKings Sportsbook and the current Barttorvik.com projections, which have become one of the best analytical options available.

If you think the Columbus Dispatch poll was too low on Minnesota, they’re actually higher on their 2026-27 ceiling than the betting odds or Barttorvik.com, which both use analytical models for their rankings.

There are still huge eligibility questions looming over the whole sport and conference. The Gophers are in the middle of that discussion with an Oct. 13 hearing in federal appeals court for star forward Cade Tyson. Depending on the ruling in that case, the overall outlook of the conference could completely change.

The more commonly known KenPom.com preseason ratings will be released for the 2026-27 season later this month, and the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings come out early during the season. Those are two key numbers to monitor throughout the year in terms of Minnesota’s chances of making a run at the NCAA Tournament.

The Columbus Dispatch seems to respect Niko Medved and this year’s team the most, as the Gophers haven’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2018-19. This season’s team might be their best chance of breaking that streak, and we’re inching closer to the regular-season opener on Nov. 2 against North Dakota at The Barn.

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