The Gophers football team has been picked to finish in the middle of the newly expanded Big Ten Conference this fall.

Minnesota slotted in 12th out of 18 total teams, receiving 183 total points from media members in the annual Cleveland.com poll released Monday.

With the addition of Oregon, Southern Cal, Washington and UCLA, the Big Ten scrapped its East/West division format for this season, meaning there will be a crowded pecking order in the power conference this fall.

The Gophers have 15 returning starters from a team that finished 6-7 overall and 3-6 in conference play in 2023. With new transfer quarterback Max Brosmer, most oddsmakers have the Gophers finishing with approximately five regular-season wins this year.

The Cleveland.com poll named Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel as the preseason offensive player of the year and Michigan cornerback Will Johnson as the preseason defensive player of the year.

Gophers running back Darius Taylor was the only U player to receive a vote for offensive or defensive player of the year. Taylor got one mention after he averaged 5.8 yards per carry across six games last season. As a freshman, he had 138 carries for 799 rushing yards and five touchdowns.

Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck, along with Taylor, Brosmer and linebacker Cody Lindenberg will attend Big Ten Media Days on Thursday in Indianapolis.

Bigger Ten

The 2024 results from the annual Cleveland.com poll:

1. Ohio State (21 first place), 480 total votes
2. Oregon (6), 448
3. Penn State, 418
4. Michigan, 411
5. Iowa, 363
6. Southern Cal, 346
7. Wisconsin, 313
8. Nebraska, 293
9. Rutgers, 249
10. Washington, 236
11. Maryland, 185
12. Minnesota, 183
13. Illinois, 145
14. Northwestern, 138
15. UCLA, 124
16. Michigan State, 119
17. Indiana, 76
18. Purdue, 65

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On the morning of June 24, 2022, the federal courthouse in downtown Dallas was reinforced with boards and fences. Protests were anticipated to follow the news that the Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade. For Texans like me, that would mean already-tight restrictions would turn into a near total ban on abortion. Though it wasn’t a surprise, I still felt shocked when the ruling became reality. Thousands marched on the streets that day and for weeks after. 

In the years following, I’ve met and photographed fellow Texans who were denied abortions despite lethal fetal anomalies that endangered their lives, health, and future fertility. Some were among the 20 women who sued the state in Zurawski v. Texas last year, asking for clarification on the scope of the current ban’s “medical emergency” exception. Another woman, Kate Cox, was pregnant as she sued the state in an attempt to obtain an emergency abortion. She was denied. Another, Miranda Michel, was pregnant with twins with a 0 percent chance of viability. She was left to carry them to term; they died in her arms four hours later. 

As of late May, the Texas Supreme Court had shut down the Zurawksi legal challenge, rejecting a lower court’s clarification of the law’s medical exceptions. Doctors are left with ambiguities and fear of major consequences, including up to 99 years in prison. People with pregnancy complications are left with fewer options, less professional health care guidance, and more questions. They can choose to leave the state (if they’re able) or carry a pregnancy that won’t yield a healthy, living baby—with a risk to their own lives as well. That is never a simple decision to make. 

All these women I met and photographed wanted to be mothers. Helios, Perseus, Chloe, Amelia, and Thomas were among the names they chose to keep their lost babies alive in their hearts. These women are among the millions in Texas who now have substantially less authority over their bodies. Our bodies. 

Linda Coffee, one of two lawyers who represented “Jane Roe” in Roe v. Wade, was 30 when the Supreme Court agreed that the constitutional right to privacy extended to abortion. Now 81, she is one of few who worked on the case who lived to see it overturned.

Left: Miranda Michel was pregnant with nonviable twins, but, due to Texas laws, she carried the doomed pregnancy to term. Her birth consisted of a hectic C-section as she fought for consciousness. The footprints of her twins, Helios and Perseus, were recorded in ink in the hospital room. Right: Lauren Miller, another of the Zurawski plaintiffs, points to the last images of Thomas. A twin, Thomas was developing without a proper brain, heart, or stomach due to Trisomy 18. Like Brandt, Miller had to travel out of state for a selective fetal reduction—to protect her own life and that of her other twin, Henry.

Lauren Hall, also among the plaintiffs, stands in the room that she and her husband had prepared as a nursery. Hall had to travel to Washington state for an abortion after receiving a diagnosis that her fetus had a fatal anomaly.

Left: Michel cradles Helios and Perseus Langley in her arms after delivery. From rural northeast Texas, Miranda was surrounded by abortion bans in Oklahoma and Arkansas, and she feared circumventing the law and fleeing the state. The twins died four hours after birth. Right: Helios and Perseus are laid to rest.

Kate Cox, a mother of two, sued Texas late last year seeking legal permission for an emergency abortion. She’d always imagined having more kids, but her fetus had been diagnosed with Trisomy 18. There were so many malformations to her daughter’s brain, spine, and neural tube that the baby would probably die in utero or shortly after being born. Cox’s ability to have future children was also at risk. Her case was shot down by the Texas Supreme Court. She traveled to New Mexico to get the healthcare she needed.

City Limits rounds up the latest housing and land use-related events, public hearings and affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.

Welcome to City Limits’ NYC Housing Calendar, a weekly feature where we round up the latest housing and land use-related events and hearings, as well as upcoming affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.

Know of an event we should include in next week’s calendar? Email us.

Upcoming Housing and Land Use-Related Events:

All Week: Online voting is underway for residents of NYCHA’s Coney Island Houses and Unity Towers in Brooklyn, who are being asked to vote on which funding model they want for their developments. More here and here.

Monday, July 22 at 1 p.m.: The City Planning Commission will hold a public review session on several proposed land use projects. More here.

Tuesday, July 23 at 4 p.m.: The city’s Department of Housing, Preservation and Development and New York Public Library will host a workshop on navigating housing court at the Hamilton Grange branch in upper Manhattan. More here.

Wednesday, July 24 at 10 a.m.: The City Planning Commission will hold a public meeting, where it will vote on several land use proposals, including a plan to build a new 16-story community facility building at 180 Fort Washington Ave. in upper Manhattan. The Commission will also hold public hearings on several projects. More here.

Wednesday, July 24 at 11 a.m.: The NYC Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will meet to discuss the following land use applications: 500 Kent Avenue, 3033 Avenue V Rezoning, 197 Berry Street Rezoning, 712 Myrtle Avenue, Prince’s Point Development, Prince’s Point Vesting Amendment, Wings & Seafood Sidewalk Cafe Application. More here.

Thursday, July 25 at 6 p.m.: The city’s Department of Housing, Preservation and Development will hold an online webinar for homeowners about how to access and use solar power and other energy efficiency upgrades. More here.

NYC Affordable Housing Lotteries Ending Soon: The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) are closing lotteries on the following subsidized buildings over the next week.

The MC aka 1100 Myrtle Avenue Apartments, Brooklyn, for households earning between $57,258 – $218,010

138 Brucker Boulevard Apartments, Bronx, for households earning between $105,875 – $218,010

208 East Mosholu Parkway South, Bronx, for households earning between $104,640 – $181,740

12-19 31st Drive Apartments, Queens, for households earning between $89,143 – $218,010