CFB51 College Football Fan Community
The Power Four => Big Ten => Topic started by: ManHawk on September 28, 2025, 10:32:16 AM
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What does everybody think? You could not ask for a better weekend of games. Every game except for one decided by one score. Yes its hard to win games in this conference. My rankings are below.
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1. Ohio St- solid win out west at Wash.
2. Oregon- survives in tough, tough overtime win at Penn St
3. Penn St - given up for dead against Oregon, PSU's comeback attempt falls just short in 2OT loss at home.
4. Indiana - did not look great against Iowa, but did what they needed to do to survive in Iowa City
5. Michigan - off week
6. USC - a good team but just not good enough to win tough road games in the Big Ten.
7. Iowa - had their chances to beat Ind at home, but lost in the end
8. Ilinois - was the 63-10 loss to Indiana an illusion? Is the team that beat USC the real Illinois? Stay tuned
9. Nebraska - off week
10. Washington - just wore out in a home loss to Ohio st
11. Maryland - off week
12. Minnesota- gets a good win at home against Rutgers.
13. Rutgers - 2 winnable games in a row but Rutgers just can't finish in the 4Q when it counts
14. Mich St - off week
15. Purdue - off week
16. Wisconsin - off week
17. Northwestern - only beat UCLA by 3 at home?
18. UCLA - I almost want to bump UCLA up for only losing on road at NW by 3, but the game was not actually that close
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1. Ohio St- solid win out west at Wash.
2. Oregon- survives in tough, tough overtime win at Penn St
3. Penn St - given up for dead against Oregon, PSU's comeback attempt falls just short in 2OT loss at home.
4. Indiana - did not look great against Iowa, but did what they needed to do to survive in Iowa City
5. Michigan - off week
6. USC - a good team but just not good enough to win tough road games in the Big Ten.
7. Iowa - had their chances to beat Ind at home, but lost in the end
8. Ilinois - was the 63-10 loss to Indiana an illusion? Is the team that beat USC the real Illinois? Stay tuned
9. Nebraska - off week
10. Washington - just wore out in a home loss to Ohio st
11. Maryland - off week
12. Minnesota- gets a good win at home against Rutgers.
13. Rutgers - 2 winnable games in a row but Rutgers just can't finish in the 4Q when it counts
14. Mich St - off week
15. Purdue - off week
16. Wisconsin - off week
17. Northwestern - only beat UCLA by 3 at home?
18. UCLA - I almost want to bump UCLA up for only losing on road at NW by 3, but the game was not actually that close
seems pretty solid. personally I'd flip Oregon and Ohio State.
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Contenders
1. Ohio State: same as it ever was
2. Oregon: defense is fast and good. Winning that far from home in that environment? Impressive.
3. Indiana: winning in Kinnick is always a grind. I’m becoming a believer. We’ll see.
4. Penn State: still a contender? Barely. But no faith in their ability to win the game that matters.
Too 25-ish
5. Michigan: no change
6. Illinois: home helped, but still a solid win.
7. USC: that travel is tough.
Also Rans
8. Iowa: same old Iowa.
9. Nebraska: sure
10. Washington: played a tough team; no shame in it.
11. Minnesota: winning is good. Overcoming stupid early-game mistakes can help galvanize a team.
12. Maryland: off
13. Rutgers: blew a golden opportunity for a road win.
14. MSU: I don’t know, sure.
Pur-Don’t
15. Purdue
16. Wisconsin: McIntosh at his latest presser: “the beatings will continue until morale improves.”
17. Northwestern: won the pillow fight.
18(a). Ohio State fans sandbagging and calling Oregon #1.
Mountain West Division of the B1G
18(b). UCLA: sad
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seems pretty solid. personally I'd flip Oregon and Ohio State.
Yes, I see your point. Oregon's win at PSU is probably the most impressive victory of the year in the Big Ten so far.
But a couple years ago (when I was still known as LittlePig) I decided my own PowerRankings would make more sense to me personally if I started treating every OT game as a tie. So when I do my power rankings, I am treating the Oregon-PSU game like it was a tie. I am giving Oregon the edge in my rankings over Penn St because Oregon was on the road and PSU was the home team.
Of course I know this approach can be picked apart just like all the other power rankings theories. But the key is Oregon and PSU need to be right next to each other in my rankings cause I feel like they tied, and there is no way I am dropping Ohio St to #3.
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1. Oregon
2. Ohio State
3. Penn State
4. Indiana
5. Michigan
6. Illinois
7. Washington
8. USC
9. Iowa
10. Nebraska
11. Maryland
12. Minnesota
13. Michigan State
14. Rutgers
15. Wisconsin
16. Purdue
17. Northwestern
18. UCLA
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1)Ducks rebounding to finish the game on a 13-0 run to secure a double overtime victory in a tough place to play improving to 5-0
2)Bucks dominant defense that has only given up 22 points all season took a while to get going but ground UW down
3)Hoosiers could have went either way but Mendoze struck for a 49-yard touchdown pass with just under 90 seconds to win OTR @ Iowa
4)Lions even at home they went toe t toe with a perennial power.Ducks were 5/7 on 4th down(thanx Mdot)
5)Hawks lost a tough game to a rising program
6)Meecheegan - off this week prolly be making their move
7) Illini redeemed themselves somewhat after getting wood shedded
8) USC lost a close one to a squad that got throttled last week. Tough going across country but this is year 4 and Riley has to win these games
9)Goophs QB Lindsay threw for 324 yards/3 TDs w/o their top two RBs on Saturday as they rallied to defeat NJU 31-28
10) Terps are 4-0 but their lone Big Ten win has come against a sliding Wisconsin squad. They have the Huskies next week
11) 'Skers as they have one loss vs a tough M team they were off this week have another Michigan team at home coming up next
The rest can come on up
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18(a). Ohio State fans sandbagging and calling Oregon #1.
tOSU replaced 16 players I wouldn't say reloaded,14 were drafted, 4 in the 1st rd another two signed as Free Agents. Just can't replace all that talent and experience at the same time. But they're giving it a shot
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I kinda feel sorry for the buck nutz
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(https://i.imgur.com/3OeXI6B.png)
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1. Ohio State
2. fOregon
3. Penn State
4. Indiana
5. Michigan
6. Nebraska
7. Illinois
8. USC
9. Iowa
10. Washington
11. Maryland
12. Minnesota
13. Rutgers
14. Purdue
15. Michigan State
16. Northwestern
17. Wisconsin
18. UCLA
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Schedule/performance table:
(https://i.imgur.com/0I0ujGF.png)
IMHO, this is more important than ever because the schedules simply aren't comparable anymore.
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Schedule/performance table:
[img width=218.775 height=168]https://i.imgur.com/0I0ujGF.png[/img]
IMHO, this is more important than ever because the schedules simply aren't comparable anymore.
You would think if the Big Ten did it right, any 2 teams should have around 5 common opponents. Afterall there are 9 conference games and 16 other teams you could both play, plus you could play each other. So on average that should be around 5, right?
Now I don't know how much that matches reality. The spread could probably be around 3 to 7 common opponents, I would guess.
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the conference is gonna set schedules to enhance their brand - protect their top teams - put as many as possible in the playoff and top bowl games - encourage the highest TV ratings
"Deserve's got nothin' to do with it"
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"Deserve's got nothin' to do with it"
OK,Clint
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says the fan of the most deserved team in the conference
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"Deserve's got nothin' to do with it"
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You would think if the Big Ten did it right, any 2 teams should have around 5 common opponents. Afterall there are 9 conference games and 16 other teams you could both play, plus you could play each other. So on average that should be around 5, right?
Now I don't know how much that matches reality. The spread could probably be around 3 to 7 common opponents, I would guess.
I'm not checking for all 18 teams but I'll do my own as a sample so for Ohio State, there are nine teams that they DO play and for those nine, they also have common opponents as follows:
Penn State, 2:
Michigan, 3:
- Washington
- Wisconsin
- Purdue
Illinois, 4:
- Washington
- Rutgers
- Wisconsin
- Purdue
Washington, 6:
- Michigan
- Illinois
- Rutgers
- Wisconsin
- Purdue
- UCLA
Rutgers, 5:
- Penn State
- Illinois
- Washington
- Minnesota
- Purdue
Minnesota, 3:
Wisconsin, 4:
- Michigan
- Illinois
- Washington
- Minnesota
Purdue, 5:
- Michigan
- Illinois
- Washington
- Rutgers
- Minnesota
UCLA, 2:
Here are Ohio State's common opponents for the eight teams that they DO NOT play:
Oregon, 5:
- Penn State
- Washington
- Rutgers
- Minnesota
- Wisconsin
Indiana, 5:
- Penn State
- Illinois
- Wisconsin
- Purdue
- UCLA
Southern California, 4:
- Michigan
- Illinois
- Purdue
- UCLA
Iowa, 4:
- Penn State
- Rutgers
- Minnesota
- Wisconsin
Nebraska, 4:
- Penn State
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- UCLA
Maryland, 6:
- Michigan
- Illinois
- Washington
- Rutgers
- Wisconsin
- UCLA
Michigan State, 4:
- Penn State
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- UCLA
Northwestern, 6:
- Penn State
- Michigan
- Illinois
- Minnesota
- Purdue
- UCLA
For the nine teams that Ohio State DOES play, they have:
- 3.78 common opponents on average
- 2 minimum (PSU, UCLA)
- 6 maximum (UDub)
For the eight teams that Ohio State DOES NOT play, they have:
- 4.75 common opponents on average
- 4 minimum (USC, IA, UNL, MSU)
- 6 maximum (UMD, NU)
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- Oregon: My preseason guess to win a championship. No reason to deviate after they mostly controlled PSU on the road.
- OSU: Strong victory on the road. The defense is extremely impressive, but some real question marks on running the ball consistently and getting downfield.
- Indiana: Winning at Kinnick is no small feat
- Penn State: Outgained by 150 yards at home. Less than 300 yards in a 2OT game. Offense must improve.
- Michigan: Kind of iffy here. Both sides of the ball are chaotic and you don't quite know what will happen.
- Iowa: No shame in losing to the Hoosiers. Shouldn't have gone 0
- Illinois: Great bounceback after getting the snot kicked out of them
- Washington: Really liked their quarterback
- USC: No defense
- Nebraska: If they can protect Raiola, they can win
- Minnesota: Tough team to understand
- Rutgers: Scrappy, at least
- Maryland: Intrigued by them, but not confident
- MSU: No defense
- Purdue: No defense
- Wisconsin: Kind of sad
- Northwestern: Meh
- UCLA: Splat
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I'm not checking for all 18 teams but I'll do my own as a sample so for Ohio State
For the nine teams that Ohio State DOES play, they have:
- 3.78 common opponents on average
- 2 minimum (PSU, UCLA)
- 6 maximum (UDub)
For the eight teams that Ohio State DOES NOT play, they have:
- 4.75 common opponents on average
- 4 minimum (USC, IA, UNL, MSU)
- 6 maximum (UMD, NU)
Ok that's probably pretty typical, I am guessing. I guess my original estimates were a little high.
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Nebraska: If they can protect Raiola, they can win
agreed, but they can't against good to very good D-lines