The Big Ten keeps getting stranger, and the top of the league has flipped again. Indiana is back at No. 1 after surviving Michigan in Ann Arbor, while Ohio State drops a spot coming out of its bye week and the uncertainty around Julian Sayin lingers. That shake-up sits atop a conference that now has a few teams nobody expected to be in CFP conversation, a middle that barely makes sense, and a bottom that looks more settled by the week.
Indiana’s 13-6 overtime win over Michigan was far from clean, but it was enough to keep the Hoosiers in front. Michigan’s defense showed up and made life difficult, yet Indiana still found just enough stops to leave with the victory. Ohio State, meanwhile, was idle, but the Buckeyes slid because they needed the extra time to adjust to life without Julian Sayin, who could now be out for the rest of the season, including the CFP, as long as Ohio State is still there.
The most startling part of this week’s rankings is how crowded the upper tier has become with teams that weren’t supposed to be here. UCLA, Northwestern, and Wisconsin all sit in the mix as legitimate College Football Playoff selections, which sounds absurd on paper and somehow feels real right now. The Bruins stayed undefeated by beating Michigan State 28-10, Northwestern handled Rutgers 42-14, and Wisconsin knocked off USC 24-7.
UCLA remains unbeaten at 7-0 and 5-0 in the league, even though the offense has not looked as explosive without Nico Iamaleava. Still, first-year head coach Bob Chesney has kept the Bruins winning, and that matters.
Northwestern has become one of the league’s clearest surprises, and the Wildcats keep taking care of business against lesser opponents, enough that Chip Kelly has coached Aidan Chiles into a quality quarterback. Wisconsin has also climbed into the discussion, though Luke Fickell may be getting some help from the schedule as much as from a true leap in play.
Michigan’s free-fall continues after the loss to Indiana. The Wolverines are 4-3 and 1-3 in the Big Ten, and the issue is obvious: the defense is excellent, but the offense is so poor that it hardly matters. In a game where Michigan couldn’t find the end zone, the unit that should have carried the day never had enough support.
The rest of tier four stays as jumbled as ever. Illinois moved up a little after its emotional 21-10 win over Oregon, which gave backup quarterback Michael Clayton II his first victory as a starter, though the Illini still don’t look like a real threat in the Big Ten. Penn State, Washington, and Purdue all came out of bye weeks, with Penn State’s week described as a tough battle.
Tier three is where the uncertainty really starts to show. Oregon fell after losing 21-10 to Illinois, Iowa dropped following a 13-10 loss to Minnesota, and USC’s 24-7 defeat at Wisconsin raised more questions.
Nebraska, idle this week, got a slight bump simply by avoiding a loss. The Ducks’ situation looks especially messy without Dante Moore, and the firing of OC Drew Mehringer only adds to that chaos.
USC, meanwhile, continues to flash upside and then turn around and look bad, which leaves plenty of frustration around Lincoln Riley’s group.
At the bottom, Michigan State, Maryland, and Rutgers occupy tier five. Michigan State fell 28-10 to UCLA, Maryland sat on a bye, and Rutgers lost 42-14 to Northwestern.
Maryland’s bye was followed by the decision to part ways with Mike Locksley, and the other two teams remain stuck in conference play. Michigan State and Rutgers just can’t get traction, and while Pat Fitzgerald looked competent for one quarter against UCLA, that didn’t last long.
Rutgers ran into what the rankings called the wall that is Northwestern, which is still a strange sentence to write.
In Other News...
Michigans Next AD Could Decide More Than Wolverines Fans Realize
Warde Manuels decision to step down at the end of December has put Michigan into the kind of search that tends to ripple well beyond the athletic department. The Wolverines are looking for a new athletic director at a time when the football program is already under pressure, and that means the hire will not just be about administration or fundraising. It could shape how the school approaches one of its biggest public-facing decisions in the months ahead.
Among the names circulating are Candice Story Lee of Vanderbilt, Katie Fraumann, who has ties to Michigan, and David Benedict of UConn. Each brings a different background, but the common thread is the same: this is a hire that may define the direction of the department as much as any move on the field. For Michigan fans, the real intrigue is not only who gets the job, but how quickly that person decides the Wolverines need a different path in football. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Still Has One Problem It Must Solve Before Rutgers
Michigan still has one major decision hanging over it before Rutgers, and it is the sort that can shape everything else on the field. Kyle Whittingham has not settled on a starting quarterback, with freshman Tommy Carr and sophomore Bryce Underwood both in the mix after uneven recent showings. Carr flashed some promise even while dealing with turnovers and sacks, while Underwood has struggled in his last two starts but still carries a leadership presence inside the program.
The next few days of practice will go a long way toward sorting it out, with the staff planning to use those reps to narrow the competition and make the call closer to game time. For Michigan, it is more than just a roster question. The Wolverines are trying to find the steadier option before a conference game that can help set the tone for the stretch ahead, and the answer at quarterback remains the biggest unresolved piece. [Read more 🡒]
Michigans Run Game Faces Its Biggest Test Yet At Rutgers
Michigan is heading into a game at Rutgers needing its ground attack to do a lot of the heavy lifting. The Wolverines have leaned on the run game as the most reliable part of an offense that has struggled in several areas this season, and the matchup looks favorable on paper, with Rutgers sitting near the bottom of the Big Ten in run defense. Even with Michigan favored by 14.5 points, this has the feel of a game where the Wolverines need their identity to show up early rather than rely on another tight finish.
The broader concern is that Michigan has already spent much of the season playing closer games than expected and surviving on the margins more often than it would like. Against Rutgers, the path is fairly clear: establish the run, control the pace and avoid giving an underdog enough chances to hang around. If the Wolverines cannot do that against the conferences weakest run defense, it would say plenty about where this offense really stands heading into the stretch run. [Read more 🡒]