It was pretty much proven this past week that the Big Ten had three great teams, about 12 ok teams, and three garbage teams. Teams ranked #4 and 5 last week go down, But do 6 and 7 really deserve to move
up? I really don’t know. We will get a bit more sorting this week after Minnesota/ Iowa, Nebraska/Northwestern and Illinois/Washington are over. But will we really have any answers? Not likely.
#1 Ohio State Buckeyes (Previously #1)
Ohio State continues at the top after “only” a 34-0 win over Wisconsin in Madison. The Buckeyes seemed to take it easy on Wisconsin for some reason, but so be it. They get a bye this week before the last stretch run.
#2 Indiana Hoosiers (Previously #2)
Indiana was a huge favorite at home against Michigan State and didn’t cover only beating the Spartans by 25 at 38-13. I’m sure it will be a personal assault to Curt Cignetti who signed his new 11+ millions dollar deal last week. That’s a lot of Mark Cuban’s cash. The Hoosiers host UCLA this Saturday in a game that 3 weeks ago was going to be a question of just how many points Indiana would win by. Now, it might actually be a decent game, but Vegas still has Indiana favored by 25.5. Will they win by that much against the suddenly upstart Bruins? We shall see.
#3 Oregon Ducks (Previously #3)
The Ducks however did take their loss to Indiana as a personal attack. Despite only being favored by 17.5, the Ducks DOMINATED Rutgers en route to a 56-10 win. How bad was the domination? Oregon outgained Rutgers 750-202. Noah Whittington has more rushing yards himself than the entire Rutgers team, and the Ducks put up 415 total rushing yards on the Scarlet Knights. Athan Kaliakmanis was held to 8-25 for 79 yards and two interceptions. It was ugly. Speaking of ugly, Oregon hosts Wisconsin this week. They are 33.5 point favorites. Yeah, that’s gonna be ugly.
#4 Illinois Fighting Illini (Previously #6)
The Illini jump back up on their bye week because both #4 and #5 lose and I can’t in good conscious leave them in those spots. Is Illinois the 4th best team in the Big Ten? I really don’t think so, but I really think you could argue like 7 teams right now, so for this week it’s the least questionable. Illinois heads out to Seattle off of a bye in what could be a sneaky good game. Can the Ilini avoid the time zone travel curse? The Huskies are favored by 4.5 interestingly enough.
#5 USC Trojans (Previously #4)
USC drops one spot after a 34-24 loss at Notre Dame. Giving up 228 yards on the ground to Jeramiah Love was not a great sign for USC. The Trojans get a bye this week but still have to face several decent rushing attacks in Nebraska, Oregon, and Iowa down the stretch that can use the weaknesses Notre Dame found against them.
#6 Michigan Wolverines (Previously #7)
The Wolverines slide up a spot after a 24-7 win over Washington in the Big House. The Wolverines pounced on several Washington turnovers in the 3rd and fourth quarter and ran away with the game. Now its the first of a couple big rivalry weeks for the Wolverines as they have to go into East Lansing and face Michigan State as 14.5 point favorites. It should be a fairly easy Michigan win, but in rivalry games anything goes.
#7 Iowa Hawkeyes (Previously #8)
Iowa slowly climbs closer and closer to the top after a massive come from behind win over Penn State 25-24 in Kinnick Stadium Saturday night. A huge running game from QB Mark Gronowski propelled the Hawkeyes to the win. Can Iowa use that momentum into keeping Floyd in Iowa City, or will Minnesota force Iowa to try and out the ball in the air? Iowa is favorited by 8.5.
#8 Minnesota Golden Gophers (Previously #11)
Minnesota and PJ Fleck continued their domination of Nebraska with a nice 24-6 win on Friday night. Minnesota figured out how to run the ball again and dominated in the trenches with nine sacks. They will need to do that again this week because Floyd will stay in Iowa City without another dominating performance in the trenches from the Gophers on Saturday.
#9 Nebraska Cornhuskers (Previously #6)
The Huskers take a big fall, just like their pride after a whomping by Minnesota. Nebraska fans were very cocky coming into the game, but all went home unhappy. Now the Huskers need to regroup and get their heads right for what suddenly looks like a sneaky good game in Lincoln on Saturday when Northwestern comes to town. Nebraska is favorited by 7.5 but we see how well that worked out for them last week.
#10 Washington Huskies (Previously #9)
Washington slides one spot back after their loss in Ann Arbor last week. They were right in the game and they a pair of back to bac bad interceptions turned the game on its end. Now Illinois comes to town this weekend and the Huskies are favored. Can they move back up the list with a big win over Illinois this week?
#11 UCLA Bruins (Previously #12)
UCLA keeps their march upwards with their third win in a row, this time in come from behind fashion at Maryland. The Bruins are now 3-4 and suddenly 3-1 in Big Ten action. That win streak likely comes to an end this week as the Bruins travel to Bloomington to take on the #2 ranked Hoosiers, but obviously weirder things have happened.
#12 Northwestern Wildcats (Previously #13)
It’s an odd year so of course Northwestern is surprising everyone yet again. They took care of Purdue 19-0 to move to 5-2 and 3-1 in Big Ten play. Yes, UCLA and Northwestern are both 3-1 in conference play. The Wildcats travel to Lincoln for a game at Nebraska that is winnable if they can avoid mistakes and put pressure on the Husker QB.
#13 Penn State Nittany Lions (Previously #10)
Talk about a free fall. Penn State seemed to be getting back in stride and getting their confidence bac with a win in Iowa City, but the Nittany Lions could not hang on and Iowa made it four losses in a row and a 0-4 conference record for the Nittany Lions. Incredible. They get a bye to try and figure things out this week, but need to win three of their final five games to get bowl eligible which means winning at least one of at Ohio State or at home vs Indiana and Nebraska along with beating Michigan State and Rutgers. Not going to be easy.
#14 Maryland Terrapins (Previously #14)
October Maryland. It happened again. Another fourth quarter lead, another blown game this time at home to UCLA. The Terrapins started the season 4-0 and now are 0-3 in October. Luckily for them they don’t have any more games in the month as they get a bye this week before finishing off their slate in November. Bad news—it starts against Indiana.
#15 Michigan State Spartans (Previously #15)
Michigan State led Indiana 3-0 and 10-7. Unfortunately they got outscored 31-3 the rest of the way and would fall to 3-4 and 0-4 in Big Ten action. It doesn’t get any easier for Jonathan Smith, Joe Rossi and the rest of the Spartans staff as big brother Michigan comes to town this week to try and make it five losses in a row for MSU.
#16 Rutgers Scarlet Knights (Previously #16)
Rutgers stays at #16 as the rest of the bottom all had bad weeks. But maybe not as bad as Rutgers having Oregon fly all the way across the country and absolutely wipe you off the map? Robb Smith joins Joe Rossi as former Gopher D coordinators who are not in a good place right now. The Scarlet Knights head to Purdue this week to try and find their first Big Ten win of the season as 2.5 point favorites.
#17 Purdue Boilermakers (Previously #17)
Purdue gave Minnesota a game and then flopped last week losing 19-0 to Northwestern. It’s a battle of who can get their first conference win this week when 0-4 Rutgers comes in to face the 0-4 Boilermakers. So, who will it be?
#18 Wisconsin Badgers (Previously #18)
Wisconsin kept things maybe less embarrassing than they could have been only losing to Ohio State 34-0 last week. Luke Fickell got the seal of approval this week and was told he hasn’t been fired….yet. But, with a trip to Eugene this weekend, it could get ugly fast for the Badgers and then we see what next week brings.
