What is the story about?
In week 2 the Big Ten really struggled. Week 3 was better. UCLA and USC already have a conference win and lead the Big Ten (a phrase I cannot believe I have to say in the Year of Our Lord 2026). It would have been funnier if both had lost, because then Rutgers and Purdue would be atop the conference.
So far it feels like a strange year. If you fell into a coma in 2021 after Purdue won the Music City Bowl and woke up today you wouldn’t believe me if I told you:
- USC, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon are all in the Big Ten.
- Indiana is the defending National Champion in football
- Iowa is an offensive juggernaut
- Purdue has played in a Big Ten title game
- It has won fewer games (7) in the three years since that season when it won eight games.
That’s just Big Ten football, let alone
the rest of the world.
Safe to say, it is weird out there.
Here are your power rankings with a brief look at each game.
- Indiana (Last Week: 1) – 3-0, Beat Western Kentucky 38-0 – Champs stay the champs and the non-conference season is over, but the Hoosiers have given zero indication there is much of a fall off.
- Ohio State (Last week: 2) – 2-1, Beat Kent State 59-3 – As expected, the Bucks were in no danger this week in what amounted to a light scrimmage.
- Penn State (Last Week: 4) – 3-0, Beat Buffalo 55-13 – Penn State and Indiana might be on equal footing, as they have produced near equal results against the same type of competition.
- USC (Last Week: 3) – 4-0, 1-0 Beat Rutgers 42-35 – I am going to chalk that up to travel, because USC was in deep trouble against Rutgers. In fact, a 99-yard Trojan pick-six was really the difference.
- Oregon (Last Week: 13) – 2-1, Beat Portland State 84-0 – We learned nothing about the Ducks in this game. Again, pretty much a light scrimmage.
- Iowa (Last Week: 6) – 3-0, Beat Northern Iowa 55-0 – Iowa has scored 95 points in wins over the Northern regions of two Midwestern states. All in a week where someone royally botched an intentional safety. Did Kirk Ferentz die?
- UCLA (Last Week: 7) – 3-0, 1-0 Beat Purdue 52-38 – Color me impressed. Was the offense just that in sync for a game or is the Purdue defense just that bad? Wayne Knight is a baller.
- Washington (Last week: 12) – 3-0, Beat Eastern Washington 48-16 – The Huskies had a nice bounceback after really struggling with Utah State. I think when they come to West Lafayette in a few weeks things could be real interesting.
- Nebraska (Last Week: 8) – 2-0, Beat North Dakota 34-7 – The No. 6 team in FCS gave Nebraska more of a game than their previous two opponents.
- Northwestern (Last Week: 11) – 2-0, Beat Colorado 41-7 – The week off did Northwestern a lot of good as they smoked a decent Colorado team. That offense looks solid.
- Michigan (Last Week: 5) – 3(ASTERISK!!!)-0, Beat UTEP 52-17 – I mean, I don’t know. Michigan started this one a little sleepy and led just 17-14 at halftime. What are we going to do with them?
- Illinois (Last Week: 14) – 2-1, Beat Southern Illinois 48-10 – A nice bounce back for the Illini, as they do what they were supposed to do. This week is Illibuck week!
- Wisconsin (Last Week: 16) 2-1, Beat Eastern Michigan 54-10 – This one looked like it might be close for a bit, but a 28-0 second quarter flipped a 7-3 Eagle lead to a 31-7 Badger lead.
- Minnesota (Last Week: 17) – 2-1, Beat Akron 41-7 – The Gophers get a nice bounceback win over a low level MAC team.
- Maryland (Last Week: 10) – 2-1, Lost to Virginia Tech 35-26 – September Maryland is dead, as the Terps had the nation’s longest non-conference winning streak broken by the Hokies.
- Purdue (Last Week: 16) – 1-2, 0-1, Lost to UCLA 52-38 – Purdue is this year’s chaos team. The offense is looking pretty good and it is enough to stay in some games, maybe even winning a few. The defense, however, is hot buttered ass. I have upped my prediction to 4-8 with a lot of 45ish to 35ish losses.
- Michigan State (Last week: 9) – 1-1, Lost to Notre Dame 27-10 – They weren’t too bad against Notre Dame, but the result never really felt in doubt.
- Rutgers (Last Week: 18) – 0-3, 0-1 Lost to USC 42-35– This was Rutgers’ best outing of the season by far, but was it a mirage? This week should be much easier vs. Howard.
