Here's my latest take on the current state of the conference. Feel free to tell me what I missed on.
- Iowa – The Hawkeyes have two dominant wins over preseason Top 25 programs in Indiana and Iowa State, the latter coming on the road. That, coupled with Ohio State’s loss to Oregon vaults the Hawkeyes to #1. They get a break with Kent State this wek.
- Penn State – After their surprising win in Madison, Penn State followed it up with a routine victory over Ball State. Their next major test is hosting Auburn on Saturday night. If they win, they'd have a decent argument for the #1 spot.
- Ohio State – Yes, they looked vulnerable vs Oregon. But they are still the team to beat in the conference until they lose a conference game. That probably won’t happen in their next five games however. Until then they can likely work out the kinks while they prep for Penn State at the end of October.
- Michigan – Had Montana not beaten Washington the week prior, the hype train for Michigan might be full speed ahead after Saturday night’s performance. Passing game notwithstanding, Michigan looked pretty impressive and at 2-0 with a win over Washington, slide up to #4.
- Michigan State – The Spartans opened their home slate with an easy win over Youngstown State to move to 2-0. We’ll see if they are for real this weekend when they travel to Miami to take on the Hurricanes.
- Wisconsin – After the somewhat surprising Week 1 loss to Penn State the Badgers rebounded with an easy 34-7 victory over EMU. They get a bye before back to back games hosting Notre Dame and Michigan.
- Maryland – The Terps followed up their win over WVU with an easy 62-0 win over Howard. It is still too early to see how good they might be, but with a trip to Illinois followed by a home game vs Kent State, a 4-0 start is possible.
- Purdue – Jeff Brohm’s crew put up 562 yards of offense as they steamrolled UConn 49-0. But UConn is awful. They travel to South Bend this week looking to upset the slow starting Irish in what looks like a winnable game.
- Rutgers – Despite only 195 yards of total offense, the Scarlet Knights got the road win at Syracuse 17-7. A 3-0 start is likely after they host FCS Delaware this week, but that is where the fun ends with the next three vs Michigan, Ohio State and MSU.
- Indiana – The Hoosiers rebounded from their loss at Iowa with an easy victory over FCS Idaho, 56-14. That win doesn’t tell us much, but we’ll see if the Hoosiers can regain the magic from last year when they host Top 10 Cincinnati this weekend.
- Minnesota – The Gophers escaped a closer than expected game vs Miami of Ohio, winning 31-26. They’ll need to Row the Boat a little harder if they want to knock off Colorado in Boulder this weekend.
- Nebraska – Scott Frost got the Cornhuskers to 2-1, and it’s a good thing, because I imagine his trip to Norman to face #3 Oklahoma this weekend will be very ugly. Probably not fire him in the parking lot ugly, but maybe. That Illinois loss is looking worse and worse.
- Illinois – Speaking of the Fighting Bielema’s, they followed up a home loss to UTSA with a blowout loss at Virginia to fall to 1-2. They host Maryland on Friday night in a game they really need to win.
- Northwestern – The Wildcats got into the win column with a very unconvincing 24-6 win over FCS Indiana State. But until they get an FBS win this is where they’ll stay. The good news is that they get a chance to take out fellow elite academic institution, but mediocre football program, when they travel to Durham this weekend to take on Duke.
