This weekend (Friday-Sunday) each B1G team plays one game. The games are:
Wisconsin at Michigan State, Friday at 7pm on FS1: The Badgers have won six of their last seven to improve from looking like they wouldn't even make the Tournament to looking like a potential league title contender but winning in East Lansing is a pretty tough challenge. The Spartans won eight straight then got slaughtered in West Lafayette but they are still alone in first place in the league.
Michigan at Iowa, Friday at 9pm on FS1: The Wolverines have lost two of their last three and now find themselves below .500 in the league. A win would get them back to .500 but they haven't won a true road game all year. The Hawkeyes are .500 in the league and recently beat Maryland at home but they also recently lost to Nebraska in Lincoln.
Ohio State at Penn State, Saturday at noon on ESPNU: The Buckeyes snapped a four-game losing streak with a home win over Nebraska but they are just 2-4 in the league and tied with PSU and UNL for 11th/12th/13th in the standings. Back in December the Buckeyes were looking like possibly the nations best team and beat PSU by 28 points (106-74) but this Buckeye squad hasn't looked like that Buckeye squad in quite a while. The Nittany Lions have lost three straight and sunk from being ranked to being 2-4 in the league as well.
Purdue at Maryland, Saturday at 2pm on ESPN2: The Boilermakers lost badly in Champaign, lost a heart-breaker in Ann Arbor, then responded by beating the tar out of Michigan State in West Lafayette. Winning in College Park would be tough though, Maryland hasn't lost at home all year.
Northwestern at Illinois, Saturday at 5pm on BTN: The Wildcats finally got a B1G win recently but that was at home and against Nebraska and this is neither of those things. The Illini have won three straight including a remarkable win in Madison and are currently tied for second in the league. Pending the outcome of the UW/MSU game the Illini will either be playing to move into second place all alone or into a three-way tie for first with those two teams.
Indiana at Nebraska, Saturday at 7pm on BTN: The Hoosiers have won two of their last three but both of the wins were at home and they have been dreadful away from home. Nebraska has pulled off two nice upsets at home (PU, IA) and adding to that would really help them to show improvement.
Minnesota at Rutgers, Sunday at 1pm on BTN: The Gophers have won two straight and three of their last four but all three wins were at home and they haven't won a true road game all year. The Scarlet Knights haven't lost a home game all year. They are currently tied for second place in the league and with a win here they would at least maintain that if not moving into a tie for first with UW, MSU, and (possibly) IL.
Vis-a-vis the tiers:
We project MSU to win over UW. If UW were to win it would move them to +2 and MSU to -1. Then we might need to move UW up again but I'm not sure because they do have that home loss to Illinois and all three upset wins would still be upsets even if we moved them up.
We project Iowa to win over M. If M were to win it would move them to +1 and IA to -2. Then we might need to move Iowa down but both upsets would still be upsets even if we did.
We project PSU to win over tOSU. If tOSU were to win it would move them to even and PSU to -2. Then we might need to move PSU down but both upsets (home losses to UW and tOSU) would still be upsets even if we did.
We project UMD to win over PU. If PU were to win it would move them to even and UMD to -1.
We project IL to win over NU. If NU were to win it would move them to +1 and IL to even.
We project IU to win at UNL. If UNL were to win it would move them to +3 and IU to -1. Then we might need to move UNL up.
We project RU to win over MN. If MN were to win it would move them to +1 and RU to -1.
