Big Ten deer hunting rankings? Minnesota isn't the powerhouse you'd expect.

Not counted in the rankings but of interest to hunters, Maryland has a geographically limited herd of sika deer coveted for their delicious venison. Sometimes referred to as "little elk,'' the diminutive deer are challenging to hunt because of their nocturnal leanings and preference for marshy, coastal habitat.

10. Nebraska

— Not a lot of deer, and middling interest, here

Whitetails are the prominent deer species in Nebraska, but the Cornhusker State also supports herds of mule deer. Nebraska ranks fifth in the Big Ten in terms of deer hunting enthusiasm. For every 1,000 residents of hunting age, 58 are licensed to hunt deer. But with a limited overall population of hunters, the whitetail harvest in 2022 topped out at 40,289 deer — just a couple of thousand more than are shot in New Jersey. Nebraska hunters harvested 23,000 antlered bucks in 2022, but in 10 years of record-keeping at Boone and Crockett, only 37 were accepted as trophies. Regarding opportunities, only 1.4% of Nebraska's land acres are open for public hunting.

11. New Jersey

— Hunting deer in Jersey? It's worth a double-take

Despite occupying the cellar in our Big Ten Deer Hunting Power Rankings, the Garden State deserves credit for its holdings of public land. Nearly 16% of New Jersey's land area is available to hunters, an amount good enough for third place. That's 750,000 acres of hunting grounds under various public ownership — all located within a U.S. state with the highest population density. Moreover, the land is spread fairly evenly around the state. Still, only nine of every 1,000 New Jersey residents of hunting age take an interest in harvesting deer. And those who do aren't very successful compared to hunters in other Big Ten states.

Just 28% of New Jersey deer hunters shot at least one deer in 2022. However, a third of the state's overall harvest that year happened in style during the fall bow season.

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About the methodology: Most rankings here were derived from datasets published in January by the National Deer Association, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Georgia. The metrics, centered around the 2022-23 hunting seasons, were chosen from a broader menu of deer hunting data to measure state-by-state whitetail harvest, number of hunters, and hunting success. To account for population differences, we included "total harvest per 100 deer hunters.''

Also for fairness, we created our category of "deer hunters per 1,000 population aged 10-plus'' (a typical state minimum age for hunting). We favorably ranked states that offer public land for hunting and added a ranking based on each state's production of trophy bucks. Our rankings cover the 11 states home to 14 Big Ten universities. (Michigan, Illinois and Indiana each have two schools).

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Star Tribune Graphics Director C.J. Sinner contributed data analysis for this story.