Preseason media poll: Michigan tops Ohio St.

Wolverines last won Big 10 in 2004. Buckeyes are defending champs.

Already picked to win the league by multiple publications, UM topped a writers poll leading into

the Big Ten’s football media days.

Michigan is the Big Ten football favorite in the preseason.

The Wolverines, already picked to win the league by multiple publications, topped a writers poll conducted by cleveland.com and published Wednesday, one day before league coaches and media convene in Chicago for the annual football media days.

Jim Harbaugh’s team edged Ohio State as the favorite, getting17 votestothe Buckeyes’ 14.

Twenty voters picked Michigan to win the Big Ten East while 14 tabbed Ohio State.

In the West, Nebraska and Iowa both received 14 first-place votes while Wisconsin got four. Northwestern and Minnesota also showed up No. 1 on one ballot, leaving Purdue and Illinois as the only West teams not to be chosen by anyone to win the division.

Ohio State is the two-time defending league champion while Michigan is in the midst of the longest Big Ten title drought in program history.

The Wolverines last won the conference in 2004, a shared title with Iowa.

Michigan was on the verge of making its first Big Ten Championship Game last season before

being blown out by Ohio State in the 115th edition of The Game.

That sent the Buckeyes to the title game instead, where they beat Northwestern to earn a Rose Bowl bid.

The Big Ten stopped putting together an official preseason poll and naming preseason award favorites nearly a decade ago, resulting in cleveland.com conducting its own version.

Ohio State was the preseason favorite the past four seasons while Michigan was last picked to win the league in this poll in 2012.

The Big Ten still conducts preseason polls in other sports, including basketball.

Buckeyes add 4-star safety from Arizona

Ohio State’s 2020 recruiting class is up to 21 members after Arizona safety Lathan Ransom committed to the Buckeyes on Tuesday night.

A four-star safety from Salpointe Catholic in Tucson, he is the No. 76 player nationally in the 247Sports Composite rankings and the No. 4 player at his position.

His other offers included LSU, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Texas.

Adding Ransom bumped Ohio State’s class to No. 2 in the country after it was just No. 3 in the Big Ten entering the summer.

Only defending national champion Clemson has a better class at this point in the year according to 247Sports.

He is the 13th player in the class of 2020 to commit to the Buckeyes since May 31, a run that started with Julian Fleming, the nation’s No. 1 receiver prospect.

The class currently consists of seven players from Ohio, two from Arizona, two from Michigan, two from New Jersey and one from California, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.

Single-game tickets will go on sale Friday

Single-game tickets for Ohio State home games will go on sale at 10 a.m., Friday, online at: https://go.osu. edu/FBTix

Tickets also can be purchased at ticketmaster.com or in person at the Ohio State Athletics ticket office inside the Schottenstein Center. Contact this reporter at 937225-2396 or email Marcus. Hartman@coxinc.com.