I think we all know preseason polls are a bit silly.
The 2022-23 North Carolina men’s basketball team famously missed the 68-team NCAA tournament entirely after being given the No. 1 spot in the preseason AP poll. College football fans, and even coaches, have long complained of SEC bias in preseason polls that reinforces later rankings.
Just this year, the AP preseason football poll ranked Penn State at 18, and they just lost to a Wisconsin team whose fans largely thought the highlight of their season would be finally getting to fire Head Coach Luke Fickell.
Women’s hockey is certainly more predictable. In the NCAA era, the team that would end up winning the championship starts, on average, at position 2.28 in the preseason poll. Still, more often than not, the preseason No. 1 fails to live up to expectations and win the national championship game.
This year, preseason pollsters can’t seem to make up their minds. The U.S. College Hockey Online (USCHO) preseason poll gave the nod to Wisconsin while the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) preseason coaches poll voted overwhelmingly for Ohio State.
The Case for the Badgers
Look, I get it. There’s no replacing Caroline Harvey. There’s no replacing Kirsten Simms, Laila Edwards, Lacey Eden or even Vivian Jungels — who last year quietly became the Badgers’ all time plus/minus leader. But, the Badgers may not need to. Not a single one of those PWHL first round draft picks scored in the national championship game this past spring.
The past few years, all the attention has been, understandably, on the Olympians, so Wisconsin’s depth has flown well under the radar. The Badgers return three point-per-game players in Kelly Gorbatenko, Cassie Hall and Adéla Šapovalivová, alongside 10-plus goal scorers Maggie Scannell and Laney Potter.
Just as incredible is the incoming rookie class — headlined by super-prospect and flag football extraordinaire Nela Lopušanová. Badger rookies logged eight points over two wins at St. Lawrence University. Haley Box and Rosalie Tremblay had particularly strong showings, while Lopušanová and Maddy Kimbrel made a strong impression as well.
I haven’t even mentioned the Badgers’ biggest strength: their goaltending.
Ava McNaughton returns for her senior season after splitting time last year between Madison and Milan. McNaughton, a likely first round pick in the 2027 PWHL draft, left Wisconsin’s season opener against St. Lawrence after a collision in her own net. Thankfully the injury proved inconsequential yet, but if McNaughton was out long-term, it could have been disastrous for Wisconsin.
However, there is a bright spot there. Sophomore Rhyah Stewart posted a 0.924 save percentage in 12 games last year, and after coming in for McNaughton, allowed no goals on 26 shots the rest of the weekend and earned her first career shutout in the process.
This year’s Wisconsin team is going to look quite different from years past, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t be lifting the national championship trophy at season’s end.
The Case for the Buckeyes
It’s not that the Buckeyes lost nothing this past offseason, it’s just that they lost a whole lot less than Wisconsin. Defenders Emma Peschel and Sara Swiderski were both first round picks, and they’ll be taking on the 2026-27 season with a change in their starting goaltender for the fourth year in a row. Other than that, they’re relatively intact.
Stars Joy Dunne, Jocelyn Amos and Mira Jungåker return, and all were named to the pre-season All-WCHA team, an honor that not a single Badger received. Even then, none of those three led the Buckeyes in scoring last year — that would be fellow returner Hilda Svensson, who put up 52 points in 33 games while only receiving one penalty.
The biggest question mark for the Buckeyes comes in goal. After Hailey MacLeod’s graduation, Nadine Muzzerall is looking at two options in net: rookie Rowan Houweling, who made a rock-solid debut against Penn State, and junior Genny Klein, who looked fantastic against the Nittany Lions but had a save percentage below .900 in 10 games last year.
In the end, while Wisconsin looks brand new, Ohio State looks comfortably familiar. They’re still running a top line of Svensson, Dunne and Amos. They’re still going to rough you up every chance they get, Nadine Muzzerall is still going to walk across the ice in high heels, and I’m still going to have no clue whether or not their goaltenders are actually good.
I’m not sure the ceiling is quite as high for Ohio State as it is for Wisconsin, but there certainly aren’t as many questions.
As much as I want to choose a side, I just simply cannot. This upcoming season feels like it’s going to be the most uncertain title race in years. For the first time in a while, both Ohio State and Wisconsin have genuine questions surrounding them and genuine weaknesses to be exploited.
Looking past those two juggernauts, a now Abbey Murphy-less Minnesota will look to break up the duopoly alongside a Stryker Zablocki-led Northeastern squad.
When you factor in a Quinnipiac team starring reigning NCAA goal-scoring leader Kahlen Lamarche and even Minnesota Duluth, who can’t be counted out as long as Ève Gascon is still between the pipes, there’s no shortage of challenges for Wisconsin’s throne.
One thing’s for sure, though — At the end of the year, somebody is going to pull up these pre-season polls and act like they meant something. They didn’t. They never do.
