The Big Ten spent Week 7 doing what it does best: exposing teams, shuffling the deck, and making everyone question who’s real and who’s just pretending. The league’s latest mess has created a clear top tier, a middle that looks shaky at best, and a bottom that keeps getting uglier.
At the top, Ohio State keeps rolling after beating Indiana, with its only blemish still the loss to Texas. UCLA has forced its way into the conversation by staying undefeated in Big Ten play, and 4-0 is 4-0 no matter how you slice it.
Indiana sits right behind those two after coming up just short, and it probably has a real argument for being No. 2 if you think the Hoosiers would beat UCLA. But the record still matters, and the Bruins remain unbeaten in conference play.
USC climbed while on a bye, which says plenty about the volatility in this league. Iowa holds steady in the middle of the pack, though the upcoming meeting with Minnesota has the feel of a game where both teams would prefer to lose.
Then comes Northwestern, which won and still dropped because the Wildcats looked like an imposter while barely getting past Michigan State. They’re 2-1 in the Big Ten, but that escape against one of the conference’s weaker teams left a bad taste.
Rutgers is next on the schedule, so there’s little time to clean it up.
Wisconsin remains one of the biggest question marks. If UCLA is for real, that raises the obvious question about the Badgers, and a matchup with USC this week could answer it.
Oregon gets the same uneasy treatment. The Ducks might be good, they might be bad, and nobody seems ready to commit either way.
Illinois, meanwhile, is headed into a rough one against Oregon needing a response after sliding back down the standings.
Nebraska lands in the same messy territory. The Cornhuskers keep finding ways to lose games they should have in hand, and the loss to Oregon fits that pattern perfectly.
Minnesota doesn’t have much to say for itself right now, but Saturday’s game with Iowa should tell us more. Michigan is also still difficult to trust after surviving Penn State in a 21-18 thriller, and now the Wolverines have to deal with an angry Indiana team.
Washington may have stumbled onto something with its backup quarterback. Elijah Brown looked impressive in the win over Purdue, and suddenly the Huskies’ offensive line seemed capable of doing its job.
The odd part, as the source of this report put it, is that it almost feels like the line doesn’t want to protect Demond Williams. Purdue gets a bye now after a rough showing, while Illinois and Oregon get set for one of the more revealing games of the weekend.
At the bottom, Rutgers has managed to climb out of the very worst spot after beating Maryland, even if the Scarlet Knights’ loss to UMASS still stands out as the dumbest thing to happen to the Big Ten this season. Penn State remains winless in conference play, and the bye week comes at a good time.
Michigan State still can’t find a win and now gets UCLA, which is about as bad a draw as there is. Maryland brings up the rear after that loss to Rutgers, a result that led to the bluntest question in the ranking: “How does Mike Locksley still have a job?
Losing to Rutgers should have been the nail in the coffin.”
In Other News...
Wisconsin Just Got A Reality Check In The New Big Ten FPI
ESPNs Football Power Index offered another reminder of where the Big Ten stands after Week 7, and it was not especially kind to the middle of the pack. Ohio State remains the leagues top team in the model, with Indiana sitting right behind it, while the projections continue to sort out the rest of the conference based on how teams have performed and what the simulations expect from here.
For Wisconsin, the broader takeaway is how unforgiving these rankings can be once conference play settles in. The FPI is built to project the rest of the season, so every result gets folded into the picture quickly, and Marylands tumble to the bottom after its loss to Rutgers shows how sharply the model reacts when a team slips. For the Badgers, it is another snapshot of a league where the margin between contender and also-ran is getting clearer by the week. [Read more 🡒]
USC Suddenly Has A Bigger UCLA Problem Than Expected
UCLAs win over Wisconsin in Week 7 gave the Bruins a boost, and it also offered a useful scouting report for anyone watching the rest of the Big Ten schedule. In his first start, backup quarterback Ty Dieffenbach threw for more than 250 yards, giving UCLA enough through the air to overcome a Wisconsin defense that otherwise did a solid job against the run.
For the Badgers, the concern is less about the loss itself than what it revealed about how the Bruins can attack when the ground game is held in check. Senior Wayne Knight was limited to 23 rushing yards with a touchdown, but UCLA still found ways to move the ball, which is the kind of wrinkle USC now has to factor in as it prepares for both teams. [Read more 🡒]
Wisconsins Halloween Stretch Suddenly Looks Like A Season Defining Test
Wisconsins late-October slate just got a lot more interesting, and a lot more visible. The Big Tens Week 9 TV schedule now has the Badgers in a primetime spot against No. 16 USC at 6:30 p.m. on NBC, which gives the program a nationally televised showcase in the heart of the Halloween stretch.
The timing only adds to the pressure, because the USC game comes right before another tough step, a road trip to No. 15 Iowa in FOXs Big Noon Kickoff window. With both matchups carrying plenty of weight and the conference spotlight spread across the day, Wisconsin is about to find out a lot about where it stands as the season turns. [Read more 🡒]