The biggest development from last week was the clear establishment of a big four for the conference, resulting from a convincing beatdown by Wisconsin. Michigan State and Nebraska also impressed, while Ohio State let things get a little too close for comfort.
1. No. 8 Michigan State (10 first-place votes), 140 points
The Spartans returned to their unanimous No. 1 status by virtue of Ohio State’s rough (but still victorious) night in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania. Michigan State’s blowouts of Michigan are almost boring at this point. When the two teams face off, the Spartans are going to wreak havoc in the Michigan secondary while simultaneously outgaining them on the ground by about a 100 rushing yards. Until Michigan gets a better coach, it’s probably going to stay that way.
2. No. 17 Nebraska, 124 points
Ameer Abdullah has recorded more than 200 rushing yards in half of his games this season. He’s pretty good. With Abdullah at its core, the Husker offense might be the most dangerous in the Big Ten and should probably do some unholy things to Purdue this weekend.
3. No. 13 Ohio State, 122 points
Yeah, they got taken to overtime by Penn State, whose offense is terrible. There are three reasons why that doesn’t personally worry me. It was a night game at Penn State which is a pretty huge home-field advantage, Penn State was coming off a bye week and Joey Bosa is still some kind of half-man, half-bear, half-pig creature apparently capable of sacking a quarterback with his own blocker.
4. Wisconsin, 114 points
What’s that? The passing offense was effective against a non-FCS opponent? Ring the gong, Wisconsin’s chances for the Big Ten championship are very much alive and well. Nov. 15 against Nebraska is back to looking like a de facto division championship game, thanks to surprising losses by Iowa and Minnesota in the last couple of weeks.
5. Minnesota, 90 points
The Gophers lost to what was considered the worst team in the Big Ten last week and are still up to No. 5 in these rankings. I’m not going to try to explain it. Just know that there is a very large difference between Nos. 4 and 5 in the poll and Minnesota’s reliance on the run means it could carry the Wisconsin curse of the quarterback being unable to close out close games.
6. Iowa, 88 points
Iowa had a bye last week and lost to Maryland the week before, but hey, short memories. The Maryland loss means the Hawkeyes will probably have to beat all of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nebraska to win the division without complicated tiebreaker scenarios, so that Iowa conference championship stock might be ready to plummet in a couple of weeks.
7. Penn State, 73 points
Taking away sack yardage, the Nittany Lions gained 43 yards on the ground against Ohio State. Couple that with Christian Hackenberg still in the midst of the prototypical sophomore slump, and we have some offensive problems. If those problems aren’t solved, Penn State could be spending its first year of that newfound bowl eligibility in the Quick Lane Bowl.
8. Maryland, 67 points
There really isn’t much to say about what happened to the Terrapins last Saturday. They were outclassed in every phase of the game and will likely never be thought of as a real threat by the big boys in their division. That said, they could be an upset pick against Penn State, since the Nittany Lions will likely not be able to exploit the same defensive deficiencies Wisconsin exposed.
9. Northwestern, 65 points
A good matchup against an Iowa team that is incapable of creating on offense or attacking on defense means the Wildcats could have a chance to steal a win. Northwestern is just playing for bowl eligibility at this point and is virtually guaranteed to make it with a win over the Hawkeyes.
10. Rutgers, 56 points
Remember when Rutgers and Maryland were looking solid a couple weeks ago? Since then, they’ve combined to go 1-3 and get outscored by an average of 27.25 points. Healthy Gary Nova is a must for the Scarlet Knights if they want to challenge Wisconsin or Michigan State.
11. Illinois, 35 points
Throwing a backup quarterback against the best defensive line in the conference is something to be avoided, as Ohio State vs. Illinois will probably show this weekend. The Illini at least got a conference win against Minnesota, but that might go down as the highlight of their season.
12. Michigan, 33 points
Michigan almost received one first place vote from a voter of ours via typo. That would probably have been the best thing to happen to the Wolverines this week. There’s really not much left to say about the Wolverines. They might not be bowl-eligible, they need to stop treating fans like they’re commodities to be exploited and Brady Hoke needs to be fired.
13. Indiana, 24 points
Seriously, these guys beat Missouri this season. Since then, they are 1-3 and have lost to Maryland, Iowa and Michigan State by a combined 77 points.
The offense remains among the top in the conference, at least in rushing, but the Hoosiers will never beat a significant opponent if they can’t hold them to below 40 points.
14. Purdue, 19 points
As of now, the two worst teams in the conference reside in the state of Indiana. Purdue is kind of like if you took Indiana and halved the rushing yards. Time to take bets on whether Nebraska or Wisconsin will put up more points on the Boilermakers in the next two weeks.
