Ranking Big Ten Teams through 4 weeks

Penn State didn't just lose at home, they bombed out in an epic fashion of self inflicted turnovers. Four turnovers on four drives late in the fourth quarter. If Joe Pa had any idea where he was and what he was doing, he would have flipped his lid.

that Michigan State is the worst team in the Big Ten. Not by a long shot. They lost tough, close games to Wisconsin and Notre Dame on the road. Granted they crapped the bed against Central, but we better have it strapped on tight this Saturday. Their offense has weapons and we've seen what our D is capable of giving up.

1) OSU - I think they'll only get better every week.
2) Iowa - The "darkhorse" label is removed
3) Penn St - Horrible game by a good (but not great) team
4) Michigan - ND was a great win. IU was not. Too many questions, lack of depth, and youth to be top 3 at this point
5t) Wisconsin & Minnesota - They play this weekend. Battle for the Alamo/Champs Bowls.
7) Indiana - If they keep opposing coaches in the dark each week they are going to win a couple they shouldn't and be bowl bound.
8) MSU - Better than 1-3
9) N'Western - slippin' down, and down, and down to a possible lsat place team by year end
10) Purdue - Oregon and ND were "great" losses. N. Ill was not
11) Illinois. Pathetic verse Mizzou. Sad verse OSU.

if anyone is going to be 11th its the Illini. They put up a goose egg last week and got the crapped kicked out of them by mizzou

1 - Iowa - beat Top 5 opponent on road
2 - Ohio St - lost to Top 5 opponent at home
3 - Penn St - still think this is a better team than Mich, defense did its part against Iowa
4 - Michigan - 4-0, scares against ND and Indiana at home
5 - Wisconsin - NUM NUM CUPCAKES
6 - Indiana - 3-1, nice showing against UM on road
7 - Minny - hey, no MAC losses!
8 - Northwestern - loss to Syracuse, close call against EMU
9 - Sparty - 3-loss team - still better than Illini or Boilers
10 - Purdue - weird team, 2 close losses at OR and to ND, NIU abomination
11 - Illinois - God-awful. What have they done to Juice Williams?

State is not the worst team in the Big Ten. I think they are better than their record would indicate.

State is definitely better than their record indicates. They are going to come to play on Saturday. Hopefully our D can step up.

Aren't you supposed to pump up your opponent? That way, if you lose, you can say they're really good, and a win looks better if you win. Who could brag about beating the last place team in the Big Ten?

dead last is a surefire way to go into the weekend overconfident. Especially in a quote unquote "rivalry." This game is very trappy and will tell us as much about our team than anything we've seen in the last four weeks.

Watch your words-- there's Michigan hating-Gods above the East Lansing campus that have made chumps like Plaxico and Charles Rogers do horrible things to the maize and blue.

what makes OSU better than Iowa?
what makes us better than Wisconsin or Minnesota?
Purdue was close to beating ND and Oregon. Purdue has shown as much as we have. Watch out if they learn how to win a close one.
In fact, I would put Michigan #1. We are not that good, but we continue to win games we should lose. We could win the conference while deserving to be #6. This is noticeable because it never happened under Lloyd (did it?)

it's a neck and neck 3 way tie for last right now between NW, Illinois, and Purdue. Hopefully it turns out to be Illinois since we play them in Champaign.

1)osu- Best D in the b10 and I think defense will win the championship
2)Iowa- 2nd best D
3)Winsy- I like their qb and their o-line and their D is the 3rd best
4)Psu- at the beginning of the year I picked them 5th simply because they were replacing 3 of their o-line, most of their secondary and their wr corps. I never bought into the hype b/c I felt Clark was the beneficiary of a good like and good wrs.
5)Michigan – I love our offence, but our D is going to cost us at some point.
6)Purdue – they aren’t as bad as the record indicates I don’t think.
7)Illi- their offence has been a disappointment but I think a couple of games they’ll get it together.
8)Msu- don’t like their D, their wr are straight but other than that, there’s not much there
9)Ind- they are decent, but I think our D made them look better.
10)Minn- I like Webber but other than that not much else
11)NW- the rank speaks for itself

For those of you superstitious folk out there who beleive I have cursed Michigan this week, I retract my earlier rankings and now declare the 1-3 MSU Spartans as clearly the best team in the Big Ten (as their record indicates).

1) OSU-they have shut out the past two teams and held it close to USC. They will get better every week and Pryor is still good.

2)Penn State- I cant believe everyone has given up on them. I understand it was in happy valley but they shot themselves in the leg with this loss. They put the game in the air for Iowa and Iowa just had a much better game. You also have to remember that 2 of PSU's linebackers were out for the game. I still say that if they played each other ten times, PSU would win 7/10. I have to take my hat off to Iowa though because they had a great game.

3)Iowa- They showed that they have a good D and can make plays. This team has taken most people by surprise but i still think that they arent as good as PSU.

4)Michigan- Our offense can score points with the best of them but we dont know how our young team will do on the road and our defense is shaky. I think we can beat every team in the big ten but we arent that consistent. (and by i think we can beat every team i mean our offense can keep us in every game, but it just depends on our defense).

5)Wisconsin- They showed that they can play well against MSU and they are always a tough team to beat at home.

6)MSU-Is still think they are a decent team but it may take them a little bit to get it together because of their freshman QB (we have the FORCE on our side so experience doesnt matter). Remember, they almost beat the very team that has given our record any value (notre dame).

After this i dont really know because i havent payed attention too much to the other teams and me trying to rank them wouldnt be just.

1. Iowa- D is a beast The qb has a lot of heart.O may be good enough to get 23 pt a game. D won't give up that much. They will be tough to beat at home (They almost had an APPY ST week one though)
2. PSU- D is awsome I think qb had worst game of his career, won't happen again. Iowa has their #.
3. OSU- Again, a great D the O is weak. TP has the passing stats of a junior high qb and no Wells to take over a game. PSU will beat them at Happy Valley, Iowa may beat them in Columbus.
4. Michigan- Our O will score points period. I hope Tate can make it through the year. Iowa, PSU and OSU have D lines that eat QB's alive. That said, next to Western Michigan, our D has not stopped anything.
5. Purdue- Taking a leap here, should have beat ND, in it til the end against Oregon who then drilled Cal.
6. Wisc.- good running game as usual. Thats about it.
7. Ind.- I think this team is going bowling this year underated. Pretty good O.
8. Minn.- Meh. Then Decker.
9. Sparty- Playing below talent leval as usual. Will they quit or will sweater vest junior pull them together?
10. Illi.- Juice Williams is worse than when he was as a frosh and soph. Remember the game at OSU a few years ago. He looked like Super Man and owned a pretty damn good OSU D with a ton of NFL future players. This past game he was horrible, yanked in at leat one other game, he has been bad.
11. NW- lost to Syracuse enough said

I haven't had a chance to see Illinois play much at all yet this year, just a bit of the Ohio State game. Since they (and Northwestern) run a somewhat-similar offense to Michigan's, I like to see how other conference teams are able to defend them. They looked horribly overmatched at Ohio State. Has their problem been mainly offensive line play? If not, what's going on with them, offensively?

a team for 11th place, I say Northwestern is the best candidate. Lost to Syracuse, struggled with Eastern Michigan. Don't seem to have whatever it has been that has made NW competitive in this league.

However the Wildcats catch a huge break in not having to play Michigan OR Ohio State......how's that happen.

Indiana might be better but I still think they will finish near the bottom if not at the bottom of the league.

Purdue is better than both of these two above teams but not by much. Remember they had a chance to beat Oregon on the road.

Illinois has too many good players to continue playing lousy football, they might look it now but they won't finish bottom of the league.

Michigan State won't finish there either, not even close. But a loss this weekend has the Spartans struggling to find 6 wins.

"Juice Williams is worse than when he was as a frosh and soph."

That is known as the "Zooker Effect." Zook is a great recruiter, but Big Ten fans are now finding out how he managed to lose five games a year with the same talent Urban Meyer used to win the National Championship.

1. Iowa - They have the best defense in the league and have beaten the best teams, including a solid Arizona team. The first week appears to be a fluke now.
2. OSU - Also a strong D, but they haven't really proved they are that great.
3. PSU - Their weaknesses seem a little deeper than OSU, especially on the OL
4. Michigan - This high out of lack of better options. They at least have a win over a ND team that looks medium to alright.
5. Wisconsin - Also out of lack of options. They've got a running game that helps.
6. Indiana - I've thought they've been undervalued since week 1. They showed why last week. They have one of those teams that plays good but comes up short again and again. It's like Washington last year, way undervalued when you look at all the close losses early in the season. If UDub played IU's schedule, they'd been 4-7 or better last season. That's where I see Indiana this year.
7. Michigan State - If they could eliminate the Sparty No! moments, they'd be ahead of Wisconsin and Michigan. Instead, they keep having them. They keep low.
8. Purdue - Also undervalued. They were my upset pick last weekend and it almost happened. Offense is looking pretty good.
9. Minnesota - Pass to Decker only takes you so far. They don't have the play-makers on D.
10. Illinois - They are falling apart, both play wise and injury wise. Whole lot of bad in Champaign.
11. Northwestern - How can any of you not put NU at the bottom. Struggles against EMU, loses to Syracuse, loses to Minnesota. I've been high on NU more than most over the last few seasons, but I can't muster anything good this year.

It's not letting me preview for some reason, so hopefully I closed all the bold tags. Apologies in advanced if it comes out fail.

EDIT: Now that I review what I wrote, I think my Indiana through Purdue are basically interchangeable. I gave IU the bump for the # of wins. I'm still not certain who wins Purdue vs MSU on a neutral field.

Without realizing it at the time of creation, I now realize that the Big Ten deserves the National criticism it gets. Damn our conference blows.