1)Indiana - undefeated the Hoosiers proved to be an elite team with a Week 7 win in Oregon. And this week might end up being when quarterback Fernando Mendoza emerged as the clear Heisman front-runner. It's hard to see them losing from here on out in the regular season.
2)Bucks - For the fourth time this season, the Buckeyes defense kept the opposition out of the end zone, and they now have an average margin of victory of 30.6 points during their 7-0 start. Julian Sayin (36-of-42, 394 yards, 4 TD) was nearly perfect under center,this time having the second-best completion percentage for an Ohio State quarterback ever (85.7%)
3)Ducks - dogwalking poor Rutgers does not erase getting worked at home by the Hoosiers.The Ducks will have to root for someone to knock off the Buckeyes and Hoosiers, though, to get to Indy and defend their Big Ten title.
4)USC - goes above the Wolverines -- at least for now. After dominating the trenches in Week 7 against Michigan, the opposite happened against Notre Dame last nite.
5)M* dominant win over visiting Huskies - this was the type of response that the Wolverines needed. With the 24-7 win. The killer instinct is still missing, however. This could have been an epic blowout, but Michigan missed a ton of opportunities.
6)Illini - hard to tell where they should land.The only losses are to arguably the two best teams in the Big Ten Indiana & tOSU
7)Huskies - it was a difficult for them to travel 2,000 miles and play at 9 a.m. PDT. Even so,Washington's offense made far too many mistakes on the road to have a real shot at beating Michigan, the offense struggled. And struggled. And struggled.
8)Iowa - it's hard to know with the teams they are beating. Only loses to Indiana and state rival Cyclones. But Iowa is hanging in there and should make things interesting down the stretch. They have the Goophs at home next week
9)Goophs - Didn’t see this one coming. Even entering the game at 4-2, Minnesota appeared to be somewhat on the ropes, but they eked out a convincing, ugly win over Nebraska.They should have a great chance to go to a decent bowl game.
10)Northwestern - while Purdue wasn’t exactly a top-tier opponent, the Wildcats shut the Boilermakers out, and thrived defensively.Don’t look now, but Northwestern is 5-2.
11)'Skers - If you want to be a contender in the Big Ten, you don't let the Gophers give you a wedgie. At no point did Nebraska find the end zone against a Minnesota
12)UCLA - having rattled off three straight wins now. The overall record is still a losing one, but there aren't many teams that want to play the Bruins and quarterback Nico Iamaleava right now
13)Maryland
14)Rutgers
15)Penn St
16)MSU
17)Purdue
18)Badgers
