After nine months off, it is so easy to overreact to the first weekend of college football, so...how much have you overreacted? What's your new power ranking for the conference?
Mine:
1) Ohio State: same as it ever was.
2) Oregon: did what they should against a silly opponent.
3) Penn State: probably a better opponent than Montana State, but no reason to change anything.
4) Michigan: dropped below Penn State because of a less than stellar performance. But they won.
5) USC: here's my overreaction--kicking the snot out of a nobody shouldn't be worth this much, but 73 points is a lot even against a really bad team.
6) Iowa: Did what they were supposed to do.
7) Illinois: That's what all B1G fans expect their team to do to the cupcakes in weeks 1-3.
8) Nebraska: not a great win, but it was a win, against a (sort of) P5 team. Best not to overreact.
9) Wisconsin: uninspiring win, but a solid defensive performance. Did anyone below do much better?
10) Minnesota: uninspiring win, but took care of things.
11) Indiana: uninspiring win of the kind that makes me think I am right that they won't come close to last year's success.
12) Washington: uninspiring win.
13) Michigan State: result looks a lot like teams 8-12. No particular reason to put them any higher or any lower than any of those teams. Apologies ELA and other Sparty fans, but omeone had to be here, and like lazy sports writers everywhere, because the teams I had ahead of them last week didn't lose I didn't move Sparty any higher.
14) PURDUE?!?!?!?: second overreaction of the week, but Purdue's win was the best result of the bottom five teams on my list, and looked better than most of the teams below Illinois at #7.
15) Maryland: could say the same thing about Maryland, but a shutout is better than not a shutout.
16) Rutgers: a win is better than a loss.
17) UCLA: yikes, getting smoked at home by a team that has only been in a major conference for about a decade is not a good way to get your alumni fired up.
18) Northwestern: maybe this is Tulane's year? Also, why was Northwestern playing at Tulane?