Analytics view Gophers as top 40 team before spring practice

Spring football is right around the corner, which means ESPN's Bill Connelly has released his initial SP+ for the 2025 college football season. Minnesota debuted at No. 37 in the predictive model.

The 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. 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 season. These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather," according to Connelly's initial ratings.

The Gophers have the 98th-ranked offense and 11th-ranked defense according to the list. It's also worth noting that only eight Big Ten teams rank above them. Ohio State (1), Penn State (3), Oregon (6), Michigan (13), Iowa (21), Indiana (24), Illinois (25), USC (30) and Nebraska (34). They are one stop above Washington and four spots above rival Wisconsin.

Minnesota's season-opener is still more than 180 days away, and there are still dozens of questions to be answered for every team across the country. The transfer portal will open again for 10 days in April, so there is still so much that can happen from a roster construction standpoint for any team.

Connelly points out these significant reasons to not take a February ratings list too seriously, but it's still a fun exercise to do after so much change across the country since the season ended less than two months ago. Minnesota lost a lot of production to the NFL, but this list shows that they've reloaded efficiently.

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