Blog Ten Power Rankings – Week 7

Power Rankings may be completely pointless in most sports, but this is college football where they determine champions.  So every week on Blog Ten we’ll rank the teams in the Big Ten from best to worst.  Winner at the end of the season gets a high five.

There are some major changes in the Power Rankings this week because that’s the type of thing that tends to happen when the top-ranked team from the previous week loses to the tenth-ranked team, as Ohio State did to Purdue.  So who is the new #1?

Seriously?  You can’t figure that out on your own?  Has nobody told you that Iowa’s 7-0?  Well they are.  They’re on top, but there’s plenty of other movement below them as well.

1. Iowa 7-0, 3-0 (2) - I know it looks like the Hawkeyes get the top spot based solely on Ohio State’s loss, but the truth is that I was considering putting them up here just for knocking off Wisconsin in Madison on Saturday.  Even if the Buckeyes hadn’t wet the bed.  The Hawkeyes have now gone through two of the big stumbling blocks in their schedule (road games at Penn State and Wisconsin) and emerged victorious, and now they only have two more to get through.  A trip to East Lansing this weekend, and then to Columbus on November 14th.  The Rose Bowl is theirs to lose.
2. Penn State 6-1, 2-1 (3) - I am still somewhat concerned about the Nittany Lions’ ability to put points on the board, which is something they’ve struggled with against everybody not named Eastern Illinois, but if their defense continues to play like they did against Minnesota on Saturday then maybe they don’t need to score.  Eric Decker was the biggest test that this young Penn State secondary faced all season, and they passed it with flying colors.  Now Sean Lee is getting healthy, and with their linebacking corps intact, they’re only going to get better.
3. Michigan State 4-3, 3-1 (7) - Oh yes, that’s right.  The Spartans are back.  After a horrible start to their season the Spartans have won three straight conference games and are finally playing like the team I thought I’d see all season.  They have a huge game against the Hawkeyes this weekend, and a win would give them the inside edge to the Big Ten title.  Who’d have thought we’d be saying that a month ago?
4. Ohio State 5-2, 3-1 (1) - The Buckeyes fall three spots thanks to their loss, and I was toying with the idea of moving them down even further than this, but that wouldn’t really be fair.  Though their offense has struggled mightily behind Terrelle Pryor, the fact is that their defense is good enough to warrant this ranking.  Yes, they gave up 26 points to Purdue this weekend, but that was more Pryor’s fault than theirs.  The only reason the Buckeyes had a chance to stave off the upset on Saturday was that the defense kept them in it during the fourth quarter.
5. Wisconsin 5-2, 2-2 (4) - After starting out the season 5-0 the Badgers have now dropped two in a row within the conference, though the two teams they lost to aren’t anything to be ashamed of.  The good news for Wisconsin is the hard part of the schedule is over, as they now face all the teams that you’ll find below them in these rankings for the rest of the season.
6. Michigan 5-2, 1-2 (6) – The Wolverines were able to put an end to their two-game losing streak on Saturday by feasting on a huge cupcake named Delaware State on Saturday.  Sure, they may have set a school record for total yards with 721 and scored 63 points, but you don’t get to move up a spot by beating Delaware State.  You merely get to tread water.
7. Minnesota 4-3, 2-2 (5) - In their win over Purdue two weeks ago it looked as if the Gophers finally found themselves some offensive weapons not named Eric Decker on the team.  Then against Penn State we remembered that if you can stop Eric Decker, you stop the Gophers.  Don’t think for a second that Minnesota’s opponents aren’t going to study what the Nittany Lions did to contain Decker on Saturday and use that as a blueprint to stop this team for the rest of the season.
8. Purdue 2-5, 1-2 (10) - Northwestern fans probably aren’t going to like seeing me put the Boilermakers above the Wildcats in these rankings, but come on.  They beat Ohio State!  That isn’t worth a two-spot jump in the rankings?  I don’t care if Northwestern has a much better overall record and beat Purdue a few weeks ago, they haven’t looked impressive in any of their wins.  Hell, Purdue turned the ball over six times in that game and you still only managed to beat them by ten points.  Meanwhile the Boilers went out and got a win they can rebuild their program on.
9. Northwestern 4-3, 1-2 (8) - While I went over a lot of the reasoning for this ranking when talking about Purdue, aside from that, I just haven’t been impressed with anything the Wildcats have done this season.  At all.  They have four wins over teams like Towson, Eastern Michigan, Purdue and Miami (OH).  Take away the blowout of Towson to start the season, and they’ve won those games by an average of 6.33 points.
10. Indiana 4-3, 1-2 (10) - The Hoosiers looked very good in their win over Illinois on Saturday night, but it was Illinois.  Moving them up in the rankings would be like rewarding your 15-year old son for beating up a 6-month old baby.  Once the Hoosiers beat somebody of substance, then I’ll start moving them up.
11. Illinois 1-5, 0-4 (11) - Do I really need to explain this?  I’d like to tell Illini fans things are going to get better but I look at the rest of their schedule and I see maybe one win.  That’s it.  The only good news I have for the people in Champaign is that basketball season starts soon.