Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I had to double-check that, and you're right.  They do get RU at home so that's a likely win.   So that's a good base of 4 wins.  They go on the road for Purdue and Minn, and get Northwestern at home.  I think they can go 1-2 against those guys.

So 5-7 is very possible for the Illini, anything more would be gravy.

Out of curiosity, I can't seem to put my finger on UMD's sudden offensive explosiveness.  It might be smoke and mirrors (putting nearly 80 on Howard isn't all that hard, and it's possible that Cuse may be taking a step back this year), but it's not like Coach Locks has a proven track record of coaching success.  The Terps are rarely hurting for playmakers, but they always seem to have had a hard time getting out of their own way.

Did Locks get some new coordinators?  Or is he taking more of a "hands off" approach and letting his assistant coaches do their thing?  Whatever it is, they're looking good so far.  It'd be interesting to see when they play a team with a good defense (and maybe Cuse still does).

Illinois may be improved, but I think they need to win at least 5 games for Lovie to stick around another year.  EMU isn't an automatic but it's a should-win.  They don't have Rutgers or even Indiana from the East so it's hard for me to see them doing much better than 4-8 this year.  The West has gotten tougher.

They do get ________ this season, in Champaign, but not Indiana.

They also get UNL, UM, UW and NU at home. If they can somehow start 4-0, those apathetic fans will start showing up to games.

I was going to point out the same thing @847badgerfan pointed out, they do get Rutgers and at home, on November 2.  That helps.  In spite of that, Illinois has a tough schedule for a bottom-feeder because their next two easiest conference opponents (per last weeks Power Rankings) are #12 Purdue and #10 Minnesota and both of those games are on the road.  They do get #8 Nebraska and #9 Northwestern at home but those might be too good of opponents for them to beat even at home.  I don't know, those two haven't looked good so far. 

Illinois' B1G schedule by last weeks Power Ranking:

• #2 Michigan, Home:  Too tough, even at home
• #3 Wisconsin, Home:  Too tough, even at home
• #5 Michigan State, Away:  Probably too tough, especially on the road but with MSU's offensive woes you never know. 
• #6 Iowa, Away:  Too tough especially on the road. 
• #8 Nebraska, Home:  This will likely be a must-win for Illinois to go bowling. 
• #9 Northwestern, Home:  See above
• #10 Minnesota, Away:  I'd like Illinois' chances a lot better against the Gophers at home. 
• #12 Purdue, Away:  I'd like Illinois' chances a lot better against the Boilermakers at home. 
• #14 Rutgers, Home:  Should win. 

The Illini are 2-0 and should beat EMU this weekend.  If they do, they'll only need three B1G wins to go bowling.  The problem, as I see it, is that I only see one probable B1G win (Rutgers).  Thus, they basically need to win two out of @UNL, @NU, vMN, vPU and I think that is a very tall order. 

It's because they have a legit quarterback for the first time in a while.  I love me some CJ Brown and especially high school state champion wrestler Perry Hills (and who doesn't dig Piggy, the ultimate team player), but they weren't complete QBs.  That's the single most important difference.

Thank you for clarifying, I was wondering as well.  I haven't done rankings yet and Maryland is tough to rank.  At this point we are still early in the season so I try not to overreact too much to the first couple games but Maryland has looked like a B1G-E contender so far.  

Thank you for clarifying, I was wondering as well.  I haven't done rankings yet and Maryland is tough to rank.  At this point we are still early in the season so I try not to overreact too much to the first couple games but Maryland has looked like a B1G-E contender so far. 

It's just my opinion, of course.  Josh Jackson isn't going to win the Heisman, but he can do everything that a D1 team needs from the quarterback.

Let's see how they do at Temple; like one of the Iowa posters pointed out, the Terps have started out hot a few times recently and then faded away.  Last year Temple came to College Park and beat the tar out of a 2-0 team.  So I agree that it's too soon to annoint them as a contender.

It's nice to be in the rankings though; first time since Fall of 2013 (a one-week stay, ended by a 0-63 game at Florida State).

9. Northwestern - enjoy your rest
9. Indiana

Also, you have two #9's.  Did you mean the order in which you listed them:

• #9 Northwestern
• #11 Indiana

Or did you mean something else?

Wisconsin
Maryland
MSU
Michigan
Ohio State
Penn State
Iowa
Purdue
Northwestern
Nebraska
Minnesota
Indiana
Illinois
Rutgers

See my post to @mcwterps above, please kindly number your rankings in future weeks.