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

Heard Michigan might be next with COVID
wonder if OSU can stave off the spread of the virus to resume this week

So if we simply went by relative performance against opponents it would be:
I like it.............
1 Ohio State
2 Iowa
3 Wisconsin
4 Indiana
5 Northwestern
6 Purdue
7 Maryland
8 Rutgers
9 Penn State
10 Minnesota
11 Illinois
12 Nebraska
13 Michigan
14 Michigan State

What's more interesting to me as a Purdue fan is the trend line...

Their 5 games in order:

1 --> 3.5 --> 3.0 --> 4.5 --> 5.0

Is that meaningful that they're getting worse relative to rest-of-conference performances as the season goes on? Is there a simple explanation for it such as perhaps MN/RU having a more difficult slate than IA/NU?

I don't know, but it does seem like there's a trend here, and it's not a good one.

• 4 point win over Iowa:  Better than NU, UNL, PSU, MN, and MSU
• 7 point win over IL:  Worse than UW and MN.  Better than UNL and RU.  
• Off due to UW cancelling due to COVID
• 7 point loss to NU:  Worse than MSU, IA.  Better than UNL, UW, and UMD.  
• 3 point loss to MN:  Worse than IA, M, and UMD.  Better than IL.  
• 7 point loss to RU:  Worse than tOSU, IU, M, and IL.  Better than MSU.  

• Ohio State:  Basically until proven otherwise.  
• Iowa:  I don't know what it is with Ferentz and the slow starts but right now I think the Hawkeyes are better than anyone below them.  
• Wisconsin:  It is hard to tell with only three games to look at but this feels right for now.  
• Indiana:  The Hoosiers avoided the let down game.  
• Northwestern:  The Wildcats looked horrible against MSU but they still own wins over my #2, #3, #7, #9, and #11.  
• Penn State:  I still think the Nittany Lions are better than their record and I think they'll prove me right by winning out (@RU, vMSU).  
• Maryland:  They aren't good, but they are better than the rest.  I realize that they beat PSU by 16 in Happy Valley, but if they played again tomorrow I think it would look quite different.  
• Rutgers:  Oh so close to so much more.  They lost to IL by a FG and to M in OT.  They are thisclose to 4-2.  Schiano has this program headed in the right direction.  
• Purdue:  That they could lose three straight and still be #9 is impressive.  Their trajectory, however, is not.  
• Illinois:  Suddenly their season-ending game against Northwestern doesn't look so impossible anymore.  
• Nebraska:  I'd have put them at #10 but that blowout home loss just stings.  
• Michigan:  The Wolverines have WAY too much talent to be ranked in the bottom third of the conference.  
• Minnesota:  I'm not sure what to make of this team.  They beat PU and blew out IL but they also lost to UMD and got blown out by IA and M.  
• Michigan State:  This is another team that is hard to figure out.  The win over NU looks great and beating M is never a bad thing but they also got annihilated by IA and IU and lost by two scores to RU.  

Maybe, to be honest, Iowa is the outlier. It was the first game of the season for both teams, both with a little rust on them, and Iowa isn't exactly an offensive powerhouse.  Iowa got better as the year went on, and Purdue just stayed the same?

1 Iowa
2 Wisconsin
3 Indiana
4 Northwestern
5 Penn State
6 Maryland
7 Illinois
8 Nebraska
9 RutgerSs
10 Boilermaker
11 Michigan tate


n/a 1 Ohio State
n/a 2 Michigan
n/a 3 Minnesota