Aside from Northwestern losing to Illinois State on a last-second field goal—and a field goal that banked off a goal post at that—it was a relatively ho-hum week for the Big Ten. Twelve of the conference’s teams won, the Wildcats dropped a stunner to their FCS foe and Purdue was thumped by a slightly above-average opponent from a non-Power Five conference (as is tradition). Because of this, not much changed in this week’s power rankings.
1. No. 4 Michigan (6 first place votes), 136 points
Honestly, it’s a coin flip between Michigan and Ohio State for the top spot in these rankings, but our voters gave the edge to the Wolverines. Michigan held serve this week at home against UCF. Quarterback Wilton Speight shredded the Knights’ defense for 312 yards and four touchdowns on 25-of-37 passing. Obviously, the competition has been pretty weak for the Wolverines thus far, but they’re still 2-0 and have outscored their opponents 114-17. And if Speight proves to be an effective signal caller against tougher, top-tier defenses, Michigan is going to be an awfully tough team to beat. A home game against Colorado rounds out the non-conference schedule for the Wolverines, followed by tougher tests at the Big House against Penn State and Wisconsin to open up Big Ten conference play.
2. No. 3 Ohio State (4 first place votes), 134 points
Ohio State has looked sensational through two weeks of the season, defeating Bowling Green and Tulsa by a combined score of 125-13. J.T. Barrett looks like a Heisman contender under center and Urban Meyer seems to be corralling all his young talent into a team that has the potential to be one of the best in the country. But the real test comes this week, when Ohio State hits the road to take on Oklahoma. If the Buckeyes can escape Norman with a win over the Sooners, they will look like a bona fide national championship contender and, more importantly, vault to the top of our power rankings
3. No. 9 Wisconsin, 118 points
The Badgers took care of business against Akron, bludgeoning the Zips on their way to a 54-10 win. While a win over Akron isn’t particularly impressive, Wisconsin had little trouble against the Zips on a day where many ranked teams across the country struggled with inferior foes. The Badgers have now moved up to No. 9 in the AP poll. While it’s not very likely that UW actually is the ninth-best team in the entire country, we’ll give the Badgers the benefit of the doubt for now. Once conference play begins in a couple weeks, we’ll get a real feel for how good Wisconsin really is.
T4. No. 13 Iowa, 106 points
After running the tables in the regular season last year, the Hawkeyes are off to a 2-0 start to kick off their 2016 campaign. They easily dispatched their rival and glorified FCS team Iowa State 42-3 this past weekend. This Saturday, the Hawkeyes will face actual FCS team North Dakota State (probably still better than Iowa State) to finish off their non-conference slate. They follow that up with a favorable four-game stretch to start Big Ten play, versus Rutgers, Northwestern, Minnesota and Purdue. So they could very well be 7-0 and Kirk Ferentz could be signed to yet another massive contract extension by the time Wisconsin comes to Iowa City on Oct. 22.
T4. No. 12 Michigan State, 106 points
Michigan State had a bye this past weekend, so the only performance we have to judge the Spartans off is still an uninspiring 28-13 win over Furman in Week 1. It would be foolish to draw too many conclusions based on this game alone, but there certainly are some questions surrounding Mark Dantonio’s team as they prepare for a tough couple of weeks. A road game against Notre Dame followed by a home matchup with Wisconsin await, so we’ll learn quite a bit about the Spartans very soon.
6. Nebraska, 90 points
On the surface, the Cornhuskers’ 52-17 win over Wyoming looks impressive enough. But the game was actually a bit stressful for the Nebraska faithful until the fourth quarter. The Cowboys were only down 24-17 after three quarters at Memorial Stadium, but the Cornhuskers kicked on the afterburners over the last 15 minutes. After looking sharp in the first half and part of the third quarter, Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen totally fell apart, turning the ball over six times (five interceptions and one fumble) on the Cowboys’ last seven possessions. Nebraska now welcomes in No. 22 Oregon this Saturday. Though head coach Mike Riley had a rough first season in Lincoln, a win over the Ducks Saturday would move the Cornhuskers to 3-0 and boost fans’ hopes of contending for a Big Ten West title.
The rest of the Big Ten:
7. Minnesota, 66 points
8. Indiana, 61 points
9. Penn State, 58 points
10. Maryland, 57 points
11. Illinois, 46 points
T12. Rutgers, 25 points
T12. Northwestern, 25 points
14. Purdue, 22 points
