A weekend that included several Big Ten byes still managed to produce some movement in ESPN’s Football Power Index after Week 8, and the shifts were a mix of expected rises, surprisingly modest bumps and one especially rough slide.
Wisconsin and Minnesota both came away with big ranked wins, but neither got the kind of jump you might expect after those results. Iowa, meanwhile, took the biggest hit in the league, falling 10 spots. Nebraska and Northwestern continued to move in the right direction, while Indiana and Oregon each slipped one place.
The FPI is designed as a forward-looking measure of team strength, with ESPN using it to project how teams should perform the rest of the way. It reflects how many points above or below average a team is, and the projections are built from 20,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI, current results and the remaining schedule.
Here’s where every Big Ten team sits after Week 8, according to ESPN’s FPI:
Ohio State Buckeyes: 28.2 (FBS Rank: 1)
Indiana Hoosiers: 24.1 (FBS Rank: 6)
Oregon Ducks: 17.0 (FBS Rank: 11)
Nebraska Cornhuskers: 16.7 (FBS Rank: 13)
Northwestern Wildcats: 13.8 (FBS Rank: 20)
USC Trojans: 12.7 (FBS Rank: 25)
Penn State Nittany Lions: 11.9 (FBS Rank: 30)
UCLA Bruins: 11.7 (FBS Rank: 31)
Michigan Wolverines: 11.1 (FBS Rank: 34)
Iowa Hawkeyes: 11.1 (FBS Rank: 35)
Wisconsin Badgers: 10.7 (FBS Rank: 36)
Illinois Fighting Illini: 6.4 (FBS Rank: 48)
Washington Huskies: 4.5 (FBS Rank: 54)
Purdue Boilermakers: 2.2 (FBS Rank: 58)
Michigan State Spartans: 1.2 (FBS Rank: 64)
Minnesota Golden Gophers: 0.7 (FBS Rank: 65)
Maryland Terrapins: -3.9 (FBS Rank: 84)
Rutgers Scarlet Knights: -4.4 (FBS Rank: 87)
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