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• 1-0 Wisconsin:  IMHO, the Badgers are the best B1G-W team by a wide margin.  If they can get back to playing and do so at full strength, they should be in good shape.  OTOH, after the cancelled home game against Purdue, the Badgers next two games are on the road at Michigan and at Northwestern.  If Wisconsin hits those games rusty and out of practice and/or missing some players while the Wolverines and Boilermakers are in mid-season form, those could both be losses. 

That's probably true. Wisconsin, like Ohio State, is king of the West until someone proves otherwise. 

However, let's look at the counterpoint...

• Their frosh QB lit up the Illini. What, like it's hard? Purdue's QB was 29 of 35 (83%) against the Illini defense for two TDs and no INT. 
• Badge was already complaining about their RB, who is not exactly playing up to typical Wisconsin RB levels. 
• Their defense looks good, judging by holding the Illini to 7 points and a little over 200 yards while Purdue allowed 24 and 472. But it was a completely different offense and Purdue didn't have any game film with which to prepare for the Illini offense that took the field. 
• Unlike OSU, Wisconsin's dominance of the West has been based on consistent good coaching and program management, NOT an overwhelming talent advantage. Hence when the chemistry doesn't come together, Wisconsin's down years are a lot lower than OSUs. 
• Nebraska is 0-1 with a crushing loss to OSU. I didn't see anything from Wisconsin that makes me think they'd have fared all that much better against OSU. Northwestern is 2-0 with a blowout and a near win over decent teams. Purdue is 2-0 with near wins over a decent team and the same patsy that Wisconsin throttled. Iowa is 0-2 but maybe only a few plays away from 2-0. Only Minnesota and Illinois look truly bad right now. 

So again, they're probably the best B1G-W team, and probably by a wide margin. But all we have to go by is history on that, not really what we've seen on the field. If Mertz' offensive performance against potentially the worst pass defense in the West is fool's gold and they didn't get their typical dominant ypc on the ground against again a terrible Illini defense, maybe this is one of their down years?

How much gamesmanship can we practice here?  Say Northwestern beats Nebraska and Purdue and is undefeated heading into Wisconsin.  Could they claim COVID and scuttle the game?