Despite six top-25 teams falling in Week 10, not much craziness happened in the Big Ten. In the Week 11 AP Poll, the Big Ten has six teams ranked in the top-25 with three of them being in the top-10 (No.
1 Ohio State, No. 2 Indiana, No. 6 Oregon). Not to mention, two other teams (Iowa and Illinois) in the conference have received votes. That’s the second most of any conference, behind only the SEC.
Bye Weeks:
Iowa (6-2, 4-1 B1G), Northwestern (5-3, 3-2 B1G), No. 6 Oregon (7-1, 4-1 B1G), UCLA (3-5, 3-2 B1G), Washington (6-2, 3-2 B1G), Wisconsin (2-6, 0-5 B1G)
Saturday
Penn State 14 @ No. 1 Ohio State 38
When previewing the 2025 College Football season, Nov. 1 seemed like the perfect day. Georgia at Florida, South Carolina at Ole Miss, Miami at SMU, Texas Tech at Kansas State, Oklahoma at Tennessee and Arizona State at Iowa State. The one game I didn’t mention would have been the marquee one of the slate between preseason No. 2 Penn State (3-5, 0-5 B1G) and preseason No. 3 Ohio State (8-0, 5-0 B1G). However, that was far from the case with what had happened up until this point with the Nittany Lions — they have now lost five straight, all being conference games. It’s not like this game wasn’t close: it was 17-14 Buckeyes at the end of the first half. It was a three-touchdown second half, plus holding Penn State scoreless, that got the job done for OSU. Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith have been the best wide receiver duo in all of college football. Both are in the top-15 in yards of all FBS players: Smith with 725 and Tate with 711. This puts them at fourth and fifth in the Big Ten, respectively. Both players had over 100 yards against the Nittany Lions: Tate with 124 yards on five catches and a touchdown, Smith with 123 yards on six catches and two touchdowns. Julian Sayin has continued to look like one of the best quarterbacks in college football as he went 20-of-23 for 316 yards and four touchdown passes. As Penn State still searches for its first conference win, Ohio State has a seemingly smooth path ahead until The Game.
Rutgers 13 @ Illinois 35
From start to finish, Illinois (6-3, 3-3 B1G) dominated Rutgers (4-5, 1-5 B1G). While Athan Kaliakmanis did throw for 253 yards and a touchdown, that’s basically all there was for the Scarlet Knights as the Fighting Illini allowed just 59 total rushing yards. Luke Altmyer was 19-of-31 for 231 yards and four touchdown passes, plus seven carries for 88 yards and a rushing score. The shortest of Illinois’ scoring drives was 65 yards, while the longest was 99 yards. It led 35-6 headed into the fourth quarter before the Scarlet Knights scored a garbage-time touchdown. Nevertheless, it was a good bounce-back win for Illinois after losing its last two.
No. 2 Indiana 55 @ Maryland 10
No surprises here. Although Maryland (4-4, 1-4 B1G) has a brighter future than it would have seemed before the season began thanks to true freshman quarterback Malik Washington, Indiana (9-0, 6-0 B1G) proved to be too big a fish to fry. Something I haven’t yet mentioned is that star quarterback Fernando Mendoza’s younger brother, Alberto, is the backup and has seen playing time in five games (all in garbage time, but still fun to throw in). Fernando threw a passing touchdown to Omar Cooper Jr. along with running one in himself, but it was the running game that dominated in College Park. Kaelon Black carried the rock 14 times for 110 yards and a touchdown, Roman Hemby added a touchdown of his own as he ran for 88 yards on 18 carries and Khobie Martin ran for 80 yards and a touchdown too. Indiana’s defense has also been rock-solid this season, allowing the third-fewest points per game in the FBS at 10.8 and the seventh-fewest yards per game at 248.3. The rest of the schedule looks to be smooth sailing for the Hoosiers as it consists of three winless Big Ten teams: Penn State, Wisconsin and Purdue.
Michigan State 20 @ Minnesota 23
There are still four winless teams in the Big Ten. Michigan State (3-6, 0-6 B1G) is one of those teams. Minnesota (6-3, 4-2 B1G) took a 10-0 lead into the halftime break. The Spartans would tie the game with a field goal on their first drive of the fourth quarter after a third-quarter touchdown before taking a 17-10 lead with under two minutes to go, largely thanks to an 85-yard run from Elijah Tau-Tolliver. Down and with not much time left, the Golden Gophers put together a 9-play touchdown drive that culminated in a Drake Lindsey score to send the game into overtime at 17-17. Michigan State started with the ball and kicked a field goal to go up 20-17, as Minnesota responded with a touchdown (Lindsey’s second rushing score of the day) to win the overtime thriller.
Purdue 16 @ No. 21 Michigan 21
There’s no other way to say it: Jordan Marshall was the reason Michigan (7-2, 5-1 B1G) won this game. With lead back Justice Haynes out, Marshall carried the ball 25 times for 185 yards and three scores, including a 54-yard scamper into the end zone. Although Bryce Underwood didn’t have his best day, the Wolverines still got the job done against Purdue (2-7, 0-6 B1G). The Boilermakers are one of four teams still winless in the Big Ten, but they had a chance in this one. After going down 21-10 in the fourth quarter, Ryan Browne led a 9-play, 67-yard touchdown drive that got the score to 21-16 after a failed two-point conversion. With six minutes to go, Michigan got the ball back and never gave it up as the Wolverines ran the clock out with the feet of Marshall. Michigan has a bye week next before traveling to face Northwestern at Wrigley Field, while Purdue welcomes the No. 1 team in the land, Ohio State, to West Lafayette.
No. 23 USC 21 @ Nebraska 17
This is one of the weirdest box scores to look at. For USC (6-2, 4-1 B1G), Jayden Maiava had by far his worst passing performance of the season, going just 9-of-23 for 135 yards and an interception. He did, however, make up for it somewhat with his legs as he ran for 62 net yards and a touchdown. As the only remaining running back healthy of the original top-3 guys, King Miller ran for 129 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries. Dylan Raiola did get hurt for Nebraska (6-3, 3-3 B1G), but even he had a strange stat line before exiting: 10-of-15 passing for 91 yards and a touchdown. He will be out for the remainder of the season with a broken fibula. Emmett Johnson was the story on offense for the Cornhuskers, rushing for 165 yards and a touchdown on 29 carries. Really, this game was just an ugly, Big Ten West-esque slugfest that USC found a way to win.
