BleedGopher
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per ESPN:
Steele goes four teams deep on his predictions, but the East still dominates when you include all the selections. Just 38 of the 96 players he chose on offense and defense represent the West, or less than 40 percent of the selections.
There are a couple of reasons for this gulf in (respected) talent, especially at the higher end.
The dominance of Ohio State and Michigan State: This makes sense, as the Buckeyes won a national title and the Spartans have been right there with them at the elite level the past couple of years. Ohio State places eight players on Steele's first-team offense and defense, or a full third of the honorees, while Michigan State has five. Athlon selected nine Buckeyes and four Spartans on its first team. So is this an East-West talent gap, or is the rest of the league simply trying to catch up to the new Big Two?
The upper-echelon talent drain from the West after the 2014 season. Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon, Iowa's Brandon Scherff and Nebraska's Ameer Abdullah and Randy Gregory were widely viewed as being among the top 10 players in the league last year, while Minnesota's David Cobb wasn't far behind. All will be on NFL rosters when the season begins, and the new crop of stars in the West hasn't quite emerged.
The only two West Division players to make the first team on offense or defense for both Steele and Athlon were from Wisconsin: running back Corey Clement and linebacker Vince Biegel. The Badgers account for half of Steele's first-team West Division picks and four of the five from Athlon, which also chose safety Michael Caputo and offensive tackle Tyler Marz. That makes the West look even shallower on elite players.
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/119664/early-b1g-picks-suggest-east-west-talent-chasm
Go Gophers!!
Steele goes four teams deep on his predictions, but the East still dominates when you include all the selections. Just 38 of the 96 players he chose on offense and defense represent the West, or less than 40 percent of the selections.
There are a couple of reasons for this gulf in (respected) talent, especially at the higher end.
The dominance of Ohio State and Michigan State: This makes sense, as the Buckeyes won a national title and the Spartans have been right there with them at the elite level the past couple of years. Ohio State places eight players on Steele's first-team offense and defense, or a full third of the honorees, while Michigan State has five. Athlon selected nine Buckeyes and four Spartans on its first team. So is this an East-West talent gap, or is the rest of the league simply trying to catch up to the new Big Two?
The upper-echelon talent drain from the West after the 2014 season. Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon, Iowa's Brandon Scherff and Nebraska's Ameer Abdullah and Randy Gregory were widely viewed as being among the top 10 players in the league last year, while Minnesota's David Cobb wasn't far behind. All will be on NFL rosters when the season begins, and the new crop of stars in the West hasn't quite emerged.
The only two West Division players to make the first team on offense or defense for both Steele and Athlon were from Wisconsin: running back Corey Clement and linebacker Vince Biegel. The Badgers account for half of Steele's first-team West Division picks and four of the five from Athlon, which also chose safety Michael Caputo and offensive tackle Tyler Marz. That makes the West look even shallower on elite players.
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/119664/early-b1g-picks-suggest-east-west-talent-chasm
Go Gophers!!
