The Big Ten has spent the first three weeks mostly beating up on outsiders, and the league’s 42-12 record shows it. USC is already 4-0 thanks to Week 0, conference games are about to take center stage, and the first power rankings of the season have a pretty clear shape at both ends.
Indiana sits alone at No. 1 after opening 3-0 and making a loud early statement. The Hoosiers haven’t faced a top-tier opponent yet, but they’ve still handled business in a way that stands out: they’ve given up just 16 points all season, all of them in the opener, and they’ve now posted back-to-back shutouts. Through three games, Indiana has outscored opponents 145-16.
Ohio State lands at No. 2 despite already taking a loss, and the reasoning is simple enough. The Buckeyes went toe-to-toe with Texas and dropped a close one in a game that could easily be revisited in the College Football Playoff. Their two wins have been comfortable blowouts, and there’s no shame in losing when you’re willing to schedule that kind of test.
Iowa checks in at No. 3 after a start that’s hard to argue with. The Hawkeyes are 3-0, own a Power-4 win over Iowa State, and have absolutely suffocated the other two opponents. Those games ended in a combined 95-0 margin.
USC comes next at No. 4, the only undefeated team in the league at 4-0 because of its Week 0 head start. The Trojans have already shown both sides of their personality: they’ve looked sharp at times, but they also nearly let Rutgers slip away after appearing to look past the Scarlet Knights. Still, the win counts, and the bigger test arrives this week against Oregon.
Penn State rounds out the top five. The Nittany Lions are unbeaten at 3-0, but they still haven’t really been pushed.
Temple gave them the most resistance so far, and even that didn’t amount to much. Wisconsin heads to Happy Valley on Saturday, and that one should tell us a lot about both teams.
Washington is sixth after surviving a scare against Utah State and then settling in against Eastern Washington. The Huskies now turn to Minnesota, with Badgers fans apparently pulling for the other UW. Nebraska sits seventh, another undefeated team that hasn’t really been challenged yet, which makes it difficult to judge them one way or the other before conference play.
UCLA lands at No. 8 after surviving a shootout with Purdue. The Bruins eventually pulled away late, but the defensive performance was rough enough to leave plenty of questions. The offense was rolling, though, and that’s enough to keep them in the upper half for now.
Northwestern comes in at No. 9 after flipping the script on Colorado. The Wildcats were getting mocked for playing in a library, then sent the Buffaloes home frustrated instead.
The 2-0 start is real, even if the history of football at Northwestern makes it hard to fully trust them. Indiana is next.
Oregon drops to No. 10 after an embarrassing loss to Oklahoma State. The Ducks always arrive with plenty of hype, but this time they managed to disappoint early, and that loss hurt both them and the conference.
Wisconsin is 11th, one of two teams that had to deal with Notre Dame in non-conference play. The Badgers have not looked sharp for much of the start, though they did show improvement against Eastern Michigan. A win over Penn State this Saturday would change the conversation in a hurry.
Michigan State sits at No. 12, also having faced Notre Dame but otherwise showing enough to at least stay afloat early. Michigan is 13th, and the skepticism is obvious.
The Wolverines are technically unbeaten, but the resume is messy: they essentially lost to Western Michigan, looked decent against Oklahoma, and then took forever to wake up against UTEP. The ranking here makes one thing clear - not everyone is buying what Michigan is selling.
Illinois is 14th after a loss to Duke, and the schedule doesn’t get kinder from here with an angry Ohio State team waiting on the road. Maryland is 15th after missing a chance to beat Virginia Tech, a result that would have gone a long way toward easing pressure around Mike Locksley. Instead, the Terrapins are back near the bottom.
Minnesota is 16th after getting smoked by Mississippi State, and there isn’t much more to say until they show something different. Purdue brings up the rear at No. 17 after nearly stealing one from UCLA but offering almost no defense in the process. The Boilermakers were as soft as traffic cones on that side of the ball, though quarterback Ryan Browne did look great.
Rutgers, at the very end of it all, gets the last word. Lol. Rutgers.
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Top In-State Tight End Saw Something In Madison Wisconsin Fans Will Love
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For Wisconsin fans, the broader appeal is easy to see. The Badgers have shown a recent willingness to involve tight ends in the offense, and that kind of usage matters when a high-end in-state recruit is weighing his options this early in the process. Doyles visit did not just put Wisconsin in the conversation, it gave the program a chance to make an impression that could matter much later. [Read more 🡒]