That was Collin Miller’s question in the MavPuck Facebook group after I posted that the Mavericks were picked to finish seventh in the NCHC Preseason Media Poll.
Great question!
The answer is YES, it has happened three times, in 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2021-22.
There have also been years when Omaha has outperformed the media’s expectations — sometimes wildly. The most notable example was the inaugural season of NCHC play, 2013-14, when the media picked Omaha to finish dead last, but the Mavericks finished third in the conference (+5 difference).
As Rick (@RedArmyOmaha) points out on Twitter, pollsters have picked Omaha, on average, about 1.25 spots lower than it finishes.
Omaha is picked to finish 7th in the NCHC for the 2025-26 season. We’ll come back in March and update the graphic!
Sources: The NCHC website for final standings by year (https://nchchockey.com/standings.aspx?standings=18).
Finding the annual poll results was a little harder, but I did end up finding them on different news releases (for example, for 2024-25: https://nchchockey.com/news/2024/9/11/mens-ice-hockey-denver-tops-nchc-preseason-media-poll-for-third-straight-year)
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