



Paul - It was another generally embarrassing week across the Big Ten. But it is what is, and it’s ours, so...yeah...there you go.



Anyway, Sparty had a bye, and despite the loss at Oregon last week, they appear to be the best in the Big Ten by a fair margin. So they remain #1. Wiscy had a bye as well, but they haven’t been as convincing to me. DONU looked pretty good in Fresno, so I gave Nebraska gets the nod for #2 with Bucky #3. Because #homer.



And that’s where it gets complicated. From #4 to #10 I think you could throw darts and end up with something as correct as trying to slot teams against each other. This is the realm of "teams almost good enough to win" and "lost badly last week but rebounded against shitty teams this week". Notable in this group are THE Ohio State University who got trucked at home last week to a team that got beat at home by East Carolina and Michigan, who got shut out by a Domer squad that needed 3 quarters to pull away from Purdue.



And then there are the bottom feeders. Props to Purdue for hanging with Notre Dame for more than half a game. And that’s all I can say about this group.



Andy: Sparty and the Badger hold the top spots since, by virtue of not playing or having anyone coldcock a woman, they failed to to further sully the B1G’s honor. (Yes, that last is a contradiction in terms these days). Nebraska re-raises a McNeesed fanbase’s false hopes & keeps #3 by popping 50 on Fresno St. - an accomplishment as deserving of applause as buying a soda from a machine without dropping the coins all over the floor.



Maryland, Penn St & Rutgers did nothing to embarrass the conference (Remember 13-10 is OLD SCHOOL BIG 10 football!), so they hold their positions. Pimp slapping a 2012 4-8 Golden Flash team won’t move the Buckeyes up, but it won’t drop them. Same for Michigan & 0-3 Miami.



After that comes this week’s leg pissers. As hilarious as many found karma’s revenge for those who hate the timeout tactic, the Iowa St. loss was not totally traumatic given the Cyclones performance last week against Kansas St, so the Hawkeyes may lose the CyHawk trophy, but they do win this week’s B1G Best of the Worst. Indiana follows for losing close and I nudged Purdue out of the cellar in favor of Illinois for showing a pulse against Irrelevant Since ‘88 Jesus. I put Northwestern 12th because I have to put them somewhere and I want to give them full opportunity to earn the bottom spot after next week’s loss to Western Illinois in front of 11,000 disinterested fans.



Ranchbabe: I found it was easier to start at the bottom and work my way up trying to figure out who was less awful. The Huskers and Buckeyes looked, by far, the best of the B1G (not on bye) but the level of competition needs to be considered. So, I have an idea of which are probably the best four teams. Penn State has something to play for now, and they have a QB with a pulse--which is something most B1G teams don’t have, so I put them at 5. I didn’t give Michigan much credit for their win over Miami-OH and teams 6-10 could be switched around at will. I think the bottom 4 (Purdue, Indiana, NW, and Illinois) are a special kind of awful. (Andy: "special kind of awful" I like that. A lot.)





Aaron: Every team in this league has faults and every team will lose some games. It was nice to see the Huskers pile on some points, but it would be nice to see some sustained drives. It’s feast or famine for the Huskers right now. Big plays or nothing. If they beat Miami, they will move up and if they beat MSU, they will take the top spot. I was a lot higher on Minnesota and Iowa because I thought both of those teams were going to be better this year. I don’t have any faith in Michigan, Northwestern, Illinois, Purdue, Indiana. I think Rutgers/Maryland can beat any of those teams right now. Penn State is going to lose some games too, but right now they are finding ways to win. I’m giving OSU a mulligan on the VTech loss mainly because the rest of the league is so bad and they have a higher ceiling than most in this league.

Looking at other Big Ten Power Polls, BTN has the Huskers #3 behind Michigan State and Ohio State, Off-Tackle Empire has Nebraska at #5, Yahoo Sports has the Huskers as #2 in the West behind Wisconsin, and Talking 10, where I am also a voter, has Nebraska and Wisconsin nearly tied for first place in the west at 72-71 total points. And for the record, I voted Nebraska #1 in the West.