Michigan ranked sixth, just behind Ohio State, in preseason SB Nation FanPulse poll

A few weeks back, SB Nation and ourselves announced the FanPulse poll, which puts our readers (hint: you) in the driver’s seat in our own Top 25 poll each week. It’s as easy as signing up here, and bang, the survey will come to you each week and you get to represent Maize n Brew and the Michigan community in the only weekly college football poll that now matters (editorializing here, admittedly).

Now that you’ve signed up, I can share with you the results of our first poll of the year.

Clemson, Alabama, Georgia and Oklahoma make up the top four teams in the country with Ohio State and Michigan, in that order, rounding out the top six. In all, eight Big Ten teams have been named among the top 25 in the country heading into the season.

Here is the first SB Nation FanPulse ballot that was compiled using the votes from all of our eligible college team sites on the network.

SB Nation

You’ve seen the national ballot among all SB Nation team sites, but here is how it broke down in our community with Maize n Brew voters selecting their top 25. You were actually much kinder and had Michigan over Ohio State!

1. Clemson
   2. Alabama
   3. Georgia
   4. Oklahoma
   5. Michigan
   6. Ohio State
   7. Notre Dame
   8. Florida
   9. Texas
   10. LSU
   11. Texas A&M
   12. Washington
   13. Oregon
   14. Penn State
   15. Wisconsin
   16. Utah
   17. UCF
   18. Iowa
   19. Auburn
   20. Northwestern
   21. Iowa State
   22. Michigan State
   23. Miami (FL)
   24. Nebraska
   25. Virginia Tech

The top 11 schools are essentially the same with Michigan and OSU flip-flopped here. From there, the trend that emerges is that heading into the year, we as a community have the Big Ten schools a little bit higher in a few spots, like with Wisconsin, Iowa, Northwestern and Michigan State. We will have to see where that voting goes as the season moves forward, but early on, we’re proving to be nothing but a bunch of Big Ten homers!

For those of you not familiar with this initiative and want to get involved, and please do, because this is going to be a big, big part of our coverage not only here but on the entire network, here’s how we explained it in our post announcing FanPulse from a month or so ago.

“We are considered one of the top and most respected voices of the Michigan Wolverines community here at Maize n Brew (Editor’s note: take our word for it), and we talk every day about how the athletics program is doing — whether they will win their upcoming game or how readers feel about that awful call from the refs.

Now, we are starting a new polling project — including a brand new SB Nation NCAA Football Top 25 — that will pull together the insights of the most plugged-in Michigan fan worldwide.

If that describes you, then SIGN UP HERE to join us on SB Nation FanPulse.

If you sign up, you will be among a vetted group from Maize n Brew who answers weekly survey of Michigan fans developed by SB Nation. The survey will start going out regularly once the season begins, and will be highlighted by a weekly Top 25 ranking by Wolverine fans. This is something that should take at most a few minutes a week to participate in.

We want to build the definitive Top 25 of informed college football fans, and that includes you. Your votes will be anonymous — though if you join, you are welcome (and encouraged!) to tell anyone you like. You’ll get to have your voice heard about whether Ohio State is ranked too high or if Michigan State deserves to be ranked at all or they’re not giving your team enough credit in the AP Poll week to week.

The results of each poll will be published by Maize n Brew (that’s us!) and may end up on SBNation.com also, along with the results from other team sites.”

How do you feel about the national poll, as well as the ballot that we submitted as a collective among staff and readers submitted for the debut piece? Sound off in the comments below!