Wisconsin Tops USA Today Preseason Women’s Poll

Even though no conference has yet announced a firm start date for their season, USA Today and USA Hockey released their first women’s college hockey poll of the season on Tuesday.

Wisconsin earned a plurality of first place votes, receiving nine of the 19 total, and will begin the season, if it does in fact begin, as the top-ranked team in the nation. Just behind the Badgers are Cornell, who technically finished the incomplete 2019-2020 season as the top-ranked team in the country. Northeastern and Minnesota also received first-place votes.

The poll, perhaps fairly, suggest a fairly wide gap between the top four teams in the country and the rest. The WCHA looks to once again be the deepest conference, placing four teams in the poll, followed by three from the ECAC, two from Hockey East, and one team from College Hockey America.

Here is the full poll:

1. Wisconsin(9)
2. Cornell(7)
3. Northeastern(2)
4. Minnesota(1)
5. Ohio State
6. Clarkson
7. Princeton
8. Minnesota Duluth
9. Boston University
10. Mercyhurst