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Well,  many favored teams struggled in first half of their games,  but dominated when they needed to

1.  Ohio St - nobody has really come close against OSU so far.

2.  Penn St - survived in a tough game against Illinois

3.   Oregon - looking better the last 2 weeks after a slow start

4.  Indiana. -  continues to look good, especially on Offense. 

5.   Michigan. -  You could say the Minn game was not as close as the final score would seem,  but then again,  maybe it was.

6.  USC -  dominates 2nd half against Wisc after trailing at the half

7.  Iowa -  had the week off to prepare for Ohio St coming up.

8.  Illinois -  had its chances against PSU but could not cash in.

9.  Nebraska - nice bounce back win against bad Purdue team

10.  Rutgers -  good enough to beat Washington

11.  Washington -  it's got be tough to fly to play on east coast on a Friday night,  but Wash knew what they were signing up for when they joined the Big Ten.

12.  Mich St - not at the same level as Ohio St,  but then again,  who is?

13.  Maryland - dominated by Indiana

14.  Minnesota - respectable effort against Mich,  especially after falling behind early

15.  Wisconsin - for one half against USC,  Wisc looked like a good team,  then came the 2nd half

16.  UCLA. -  lost late night game to Oregon

17.  NW. -  had the week off to try to fix the offense

18.  Purdue - just not a good team this year. 

1)tOSU
2)Ducks
3)Fighting Franklins nice win at home
4)Weasels offense better find itself before leaving AA for the 1st time in October
5)Trojans seem streaky that QB can take a beating and keep on repeating
6) Schiano Knights beat a decent Husky squad and headed to Lincoln for what could be the best game of the week
7)Hoosiers beat Terps by 2 TDs coinflip between them and the Knights. Justifying their preseason no 16 ranking so far
8)Hawkeyes could swap them with Bert's boys
9)Illini decent but hit a wall in Happy Valleyin a tough venue to play at night. Have to get the offense clicking
10)'Skers look solid and oly loss was close find out more vs Rutgers
The rest have to up their Game - it is the BIG TEN after all

still say the top and the bottom are clearer than the middle 
maybe by the end of the season it gets somewhat clearer

I think that the new guys from the West are going to see that running through the big ten is not an easy thing

Big Ten Football’s Proper Power Rankings: After Week Five

By Nate McHugh


1 - Ohio State
Previous: Won 38-7 against Michigan State.

Upcoming: Iowa at Home.

Momentary Musing: This week will be the first game that resembles a test and Ohio State could very well blow them out but Iowa could definitely make this a game. Ohio State’s non-conference schedule was a joke. Akron, Western Michigan and Marshall and then they played Michigan State. Fans have to be bored.

2 - Penn State
Previous: Beat #19 Illinois 21-7.

Upcoming: UCLA at Home.

Momentary Musing: If the Illinois game is AT Illinois does Penn State walk away with a win? I don’t think no. However, that is more about Illinois than anything bad about Penn State. Penn State should get an easy win against UCLA before the matchup with USC.

3 - Oregon
Previous: Beat UCLA 34-13.

Upcoming: Michigan State at Home on Friday.

Momentary Musing: Danny Lanning and the Ducks are figuring things out after a little bit of a struggle to begin the year. I am definitely looking forward to the Ohio State game but I am interested to see what happens on a Friday night game when crazy things can happen.

4 - USC
Previous: Beat Wisconsin 38-21.

Upcoming: At Minnesota.

Momentary Musing: Unlike Ohio State, USC has actually played a legit schedule. They beat Wisconsin comfortably and should not have a problem with Minnesota but it could be a game of matchups. USC might not enjoy their time at Minnesota but they should get the win.

5 - Michigan
Previous: Beat Minnesota 27-24.

Upcoming: At Washington.

Momentary Musing: Will the real Michigan please stand up? They got lucky on the onside kick offsides call and Minnesota could have found a way to win. And this is not a good Minnesota team. However, Michigan did beat a USC team that blew out Wisconsin.

6 - Indiana
Previous: Beat Maryland 42-28.

Upcoming: At Northwestern.

Momentary Musing: Now in all seriousness, the best team they have played is Maryland and this week’s game against Northwestern isn’t going to be much of a test either. They should be 6-0 when they meet up with Nebraska.

7 - Illinois
Previous: Lost 21-7 to #9 Penn State.

Upcoming: Bye Week.

Momentary Musing: A well earned bye week after beating Nebraska at Nebraska and then being really competitive at Penn State. I think this could be one of the best teams in the conference not named Ohio State, Penn State or Oregon.

8 - Rutgers
Previous: Won 21-18 over Washington.

Upcoming: At Nebraska.

Momentary Musing: Nebraska fans need to prepare for what is coming to Lincoln. It is not the Rutgers of old but an undefeated team that has better wins than Nebraska and definitely looked better last week in a win against Washington. They beat a Virginia Tech team at Virginia Tech, which is the team that should have beaten #8 ranked Miami last week if the officials didn’t screw up the call.

9 - Iowa

Upcoming: At Ohio State.

Momentary Musing: I’m dropping Iowa but it is solely based off of the wanting to move up USC, Illinois and Indiana. Iowa obviously has a great opportunity this week to make a huge jump back up.

10 - Nebraska
Previous: Won 28-10 over Purdue.

Upcoming: Rutgers at Home.

Momentary Musing: Make the field goals and the game looks like 37-10 win at Purdue. Make no mistake, Purdue is not a good football team but winning by 18 when that first half was about as bad as it can get might actually be a sign of progress. Nebraska teams in the past probably lose this game for sure.

11 - Wisconsin
Previous: Lost 38-21 to #13 USC.

Upcoming: Purdue at Home.

Momentary Musing: Life is hard without their starting quarterback and their last two games came against Alabama and USC. They’ll have to drop but maybe shouldn’t. This week against Purdue should be nice especially since Purdue just fired their offensive coordinator.

12 - Washington
Previous: Lost 21-18 to Rutgers.

Upcoming: Michigan at Home.

Momentary Musing: Washington is 3-2 and they are not as bad as their record. They lost a rivalry game and then lost to Rutgers at Rutgers. I expect them to give Michigan a test this weekend. Maybe they can find a win.

13 - Maryland
Previous: Lost to Indiana 42-28.

Upcoming: Bye Week.

Momentary Musing: Another team that is better than their record and should be 4-2 after beating Northwestern after their Bye Week.

14 - Michigan State
Previous: Lost 38-7 to #3 Ohio State.

Upcoming: At Oregon on Friday.

Momentary Musing: Move on from the Ohio State loss and find a way to push Oregon on Friday night. You may never know what could happen.

15 - Minnesota
Previous: Lost 27-24 to #12 Michigan.

Upcoming: USC at Home.

Momentary Musing: Minnesota was down 24-3 going into the fourth quarter and should have really made Michigan sweat if it wasn’t for the officials making a bad call on the onside kick. Has Minnesota figured something out offensively?

16 - UCLA
Previous: Lost 34-13 to #8 Oregon.

Upcoming: At Penn State.

Momentary Musing: There might be one more win on this schedule for UCLA. It could be Nebraska. But Penn State is not going to be one of them.

17 - Northwestern
Previous: Bye Week.

Upcoming: Indiana at Home.

Momentary Musing: Not a believer in this program but they can make me put my foot in my mouth this week.

18 - Purdue
Previous: Lost 28-10 to Nebraska.

Upcoming: At Wisconsin.

Momentary Musing: This week we have two wounded animals between Purdue and Wisconsin. One just fired it’s OC and the other lost it’s starting quarterback earlier this season. In fact, this could be appointment television.

Which is why I shed no tears for Washington flying to NJ.

But why does MSU have to go from playing OSU to playing in Eugene on short rest?  We were here!  I demand justice.  Justice and maybe pate

Yes,  Iowa gets a similar deal later in November.  Iowa gets to play at UCLA on a Friday night 6 days after hosting Wisconsin.  Now I know playing Wisc and @UCLA are not quite the same as playing Ohio St and @Ore,  but it's still annoying.

When the game was first announced,  I was actually thinking of attending the Iowa @UCLA game,  but then they changed it to Friday night and I lost interest in the idea.    Maybe in 5 years I will try again.

Good:
1) Ohio State, same as it ever was.
2) Penn State: solid win, but just as easily could be...
3) Oregon: wins are good, UCLA isn't.
4) Michigan: weird game, but best not to read too much into it.
5) USC: made up for some mistakes early, punished Wisconsin's mistakes in the second half.

Bad: 
Maryland, Northwestern, Purdue, and UCLA all seem pretty weak.

God Only Knows:
Indiana: keeps winning, hasn't played a good team yet. It's Indiana, so I'm skeptical.
Illinois and Rutgers: look like they can grind away pretty effectively. Iowa always falls into this category, but typically better than most others.
Washington: probably pretty decent, but two losses it really wishes it could have back.
MSU, Minnesota, and Wisconsin: all look like they could be pretty bad, but also could be decent against the rest of the pack. But they aren't better than decent.
No idea what to do with Nebraska at this point, either. Maybe that Illinois loss is nothing to scoff at. At least the Cornhuskers have a couple of good looking wins. But it isn't as though they have spent the last decade convincing me of how strong they are.