Iowa Hawkeyes top ESPN’s Big Ten returning production ranks
ESPN’s Bill Connelly puts together his SP+ rankings every single season. Fans have gotten several different versions over the course of this offseason, and on Sunday he unveiled his final preseason SP+ rankings.
For those wondering what SP+ is, here’s a quick description from Connelly.
SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and, along those same lines, these projections aren’t intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the year. These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather to date. – Connelly, ESPN.
The Iowa Hawkeyes ranked No. 27 nationally in the final preseason SP+ rankings, which was good for sixth among Big Ten teams. In order to put his SP+ projections together, ESPN’s Connelly uses three primary factors: returning production, recent recruiting and recent history.
Hawkeyes Wire already touched on where Iowa and the rest of the Hawkeyes’ opponents rank in the final preseason SP+ rankings. In terms of where each college football conference ranked, the Big Ten checked in as the nation’s No. 2 conference on average in the SP+ rankings.
Now, let’s take a look at one of the individual components that helped Connelly put these rankings together. Here’s where Iowa and each of the Big Ten teams ranked in terms of returning production.
Indiana Hoosiers
Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports
National rank: No. 107
Overall returning production percentage: 54%
Offensive percentage rank: 49% (No. 110)
Defensive percentage rank: 59% (No. 88)
Illinois Fighting Illini
AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast
National rank: No. 103
Overall returning production: 55%
Offensive percentage rank: 59% (No. 72)
Defensive percentage rank: 50% (No. 113)
Wisconsin Badgers
Harrison Barden-USA TODAY Sports
National rank: No. 99
Overall returning production: 55%
Offensive percentage rank: 57% (No. 84)
Defensive percentage rank: 54% (No. 105)
Nebraska Cornhuskers
Photo by Oisin Keniry/Getty Images
National rank: No. 95
Overall returning production: 56%
Offensive percentage rank: 55% (No. 89)
Defensive percentage rank: 56% (No. 99)
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
National rank: No. 76
Overall returning production: 61%
Offensive percentage rank: 68% (No. 44)
Defensive percentage rank: 55% (No. 102)
Michigan Wolverines
Junfu Han/Detroit Free Press / USA TODAY NETWORK
National rank: No. 74
Overall returning production: 61%
Offensive percentage rank: 78% (No. 18)
Defensive percentage rank: 45% (No. 118)
Penn State Nittany Lions
Matt Pendleton-USA TODAY Sports
National rank: No. 69
Overall returning production: 63%
Offensive percentage rank: 69% (No. 38)
Defensive percentage rank: 57% (No. 98)
Northwestern Wildcats
Brendan Moran-USA TODAY Sports
National rank: No. 64
Overall returning production: 64%
Offensive percentage rank: 66% (No. 48)
Defensive percentage rank: 61% (No. 82)
Purdue Boilermakers
Jon Durr-USA TODAY Sports
National rank: No. 56
Overall returning production: 65%
Offensive percentage rank: 66% (No. 49)
Defensive percentage rank: 63% (No. 69)
Minnesota Golden Gophers
Nick Wosika-USA TODAY Sports
National rank: No. 54
Overall returning production: 65%
Offensive percentage rank: 74% (No. 29)
Defensive percentage rank: 57% (No. 97)
Maryland Terrapins
Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
National rank: No. 41
Overall returning production: 68%
Offensive percentage rank: 81% (No. 12)
Defensive percentage rank: 55% (No. 101)
Michigan State Spartans
Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK
National rank: No. 33
Overall returning production: 70%
Offensive percentage rank: 65% (No. 55)
Defensive percentage rank: 75% (No. 31)
Ohio State Buckeyes
Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback C.J. Stroud throws a pass during the fourth quarter of the Rose Bowl against the Utah Utes in Pasadena, Calif. on Jan. 1, 2022.
Syndication The Columbus Dispatch
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
National rank: No. 29
Overall returning production: 71%
Offensive percentage rank: 66% (No. 53)
Defensive percentage rank: 76% (No. 28)
Iowa Hawkeyes
Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK
National rank: No. 27
Overall returning production: 71%
Offensive percentage rank: 75% (No. 24)
Defensive percentage rank: 68% (No. 53)
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