Archrivals Michigan and Michigan State split the favorite’s role in the CCHA’s preseason polls, announced Tuesday. League coaches favored the Wolverines, while the media anointed the Spartans as the league’s best coming into the year.
In the coaches’ poll, Michigan received 10 of 12 first-place votes and 140 points to edge Michigan State, which garnered the other two first-place votes, by nine points.
Northern Michigan was third with 121 points, followed by Notre Dame with 104 and Ohio State with 93 to complete the top half of the conference.
Bowling Green (89), Ferris State (67) and Lake Superior (56) were the coaches’ final three playoff picks. Miami (53), Western Michigan (38), first-year member Nebraska-Omaha (25) and Alaska-Fairbanks (19) finished up the poll.
On the media side, MSU received 18 first-place votes and 462 points to finish ahead of Michigan’s 454 points and 19 first-place votes. NMU was third with three first-place votes and 389 points, while Ohio State took the remaining first-place ballot to finish fourth with 356 points.
Notre Dame (340) points, Bowling Green (263) points, Ferris State (213) and Lake Superior (201) rounded out the top eight, with Miami (188), Western Michigan (153), Nebraska-Omaha (97) and Alaska-Fairbanks (82) following.
