What a wild week of Big Ten Football. Two different overtime games, a showdown of two powerhouses in Oregon, and three complete blowouts. Last week, the Big Ten power rankings only saw two football teams shifted more than two spots in the rankings. This week, the teams are all getting shaken up as we continue to learn more about all of these teams in Conference play. First, let’s take a look at last week‘s Rankings!
Ohio State Buckeyes
Oregon Ducks
Penn State Nittany Lions
Indiana Hoosiers
Illinois Fighting Illini
Nebraska Cornhuskers
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Michigan Wolverines
Washington Huskies
USC Trojans
Iowa Hawkeyes
Michigan State Spartans
Wisconsin Badgers
Minnesota Golden Gophers
Maryland Terrapins
Northwestern Wildcats
Purdue Boilermakers
UCLA Bruins
With four teams (Indiana, Nebraska, Michigan, Michigan State) all on bye weeks, the Big Ten had seven games played this week and most were great to watch. There were a few complete blowouts that were not as exciting as the rest of the games. That being said, we may have had the best game of the college football season this past week as Purdue fell… Nah just kidding! The game of the year was Ohio State at Oregon. Until the 12 team College Football Playoffs get here, that will be one of the best games of the year. Now let’s get to these Big Ten Football power rankings.
Big Ten Football Power Rankings
1. Oregon Ducks (7-0; 4-0) [+1]
The Ducks won a great game against the Buckeyes this past week. After seven different lead changes, the Ducks were able to seal it away. As such, they have now moved here to the top ranked team in the Big Ten football power rankings.
This week, Oregon traveled across the country to West Lafayette, Indiana to face the 1-5 Purdue Boilermakers on Friday night – and made quick work of them. The Ducks keep rolling, and that’s why they’ve taken the top spot in these power rankings.
2. Ohio State Buckeyes (5-1; 2-1) [-1]
The Buckeyes are still a darn good team. In fact, they are one of the best teams in the nation and will continue to play like they are such. Yes they lost to Oregon, but they still deserved to be viewed as a National Title contender. They are No. 2 here because of how well they played against another top five team in the nation. This week, they’re on bye before playing Nebraska next week.
3. Penn State Nittany Lions (6-0; 3-0) [–]
Penn State had a wonderful overtime win against the USC Trojans this past week. Just like Ohio State, they will also be on bye this week to rest up from their west coast game. Next week they will be traveling to Wisconsin to face off against the Badgers.
4. Indiana Hoosiers (6-0; 3-0) [–]
The Hoosiers are coming off of their bye week and will return with a fun match on Saturday as they host Nebraska. Both teams are really strong, but in different ways. IU has a great Offense and a good Defense whereas Nebraska has an elite Defense and a solid Offense. It should be quite the matchup!
5. Illinois Fighting Illini (5-1; 2-1) [–]
Illinois looked great for the entire game against Purdue last, but they were not the best team on the field in the second half. Throughout the second half, Purdue walked all over the Illini. Yes, Illinois pulled off the win, but they did not look like they would. A different camera angle on the “not a fumble” and the Boilermakers would have won this game.
Illinois needs to bounce back this week as they host Michigan and their revamped offense. The Wolverines played best when quarterback Jack Tuttle took over. With him now getting the start, Illinois will need to be on top of their game in order to win.
6. Nebraska Cornhuskers (5-1; 2-1) [–]
The Cornhuskers were dominate in the non-Conference games, but have slowed down in their Big Ten games. Yes, they’re 2-1 in Big Ten games, but that includes a 14-7 win over Rutgers and a Purdue game where Nebraska did not score until late in the third quarter.
Nebraska faces their toughest matchup yet as they travel to Indiana, and then to Ohio State the week afterwards to finish out October. The Cornhuskers are a good team that will only get better over the next couple of years as Dylan Raiola develops. They are sixth in these Big Ten football power rankings for now, but may fall over these next two weeks.
7. Michigan Wolverines (4-2; 2-1) [+1]
Breaking news, Michigan is still good at football. All they had to do was switch to their third QB and give Kalel Mullings the primary role for Donovan Edwards to breakout again. The Wolverines did lose to the Huskies in their last game, but now there’s potential to improve.
Michigan has four tough matchups in their last six games, but they will hopefully fight for every yard in all of those tough games. This is not the team that will make a major run to win back to back National Titles, but they will likely make a Bowl game and win at least one of those tough games.
8. Iowa Hawkeyes (4-2; 2-1) [+3]
How long ago were people calling for Iowa to fire their coach and hire an offensive mind? I bet no one is saying that now. The Hawkeyes have more games that they scored over 35 points than games they score less than 20 points. That’s how good Kaleb Johnson is playing! And, it’s not because of Cade McNamara that the Hawkeyes are playing well. Running back Kaleb Johnson is on fire and cannot be stopped.
In six games, Kaleb Johnson already has 937 rushing yards and 12 rushing TDs on 118 rushing attempts. For comparison, the best RB in college football (Ashton Jeanty) has 1,248 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns on 126 attempts. These are two of the best rushers in all of college football and Iowa is winning games because of it.
9. Washington Huskies (4-3; 2-2) [–]
The Huskies are a good team with a bad loss to Iowa. They get to take a break to rest before traveling across the country to play at Indiana on October 26. If the trend of teams traveling two or more time zones continues, the Huskies are going to lose to Indiana. Even if that’s just a coincidence, the Huskies are still likely going to lose to the Hoosiers. Washington is a good team that will make a Bowl Game, but they are more likely going to finish closer to 6-6 than 10-2.
10. USC Trojans (3-3; 1-3) [–]
USC held their own against the Nittany Lions this past week. Yes, they’re now 3-3, but they’re the best 3-3 team in the Big Ten and better than quite a few teams with four wins. Now they get to travel across the country to Maryland in another multi-time zone journey. So far in the Big Ten, teams that are traveling over two time zones have lost all but two games. Not to call for an upset, but this is in prime upset potential.
11. Wisconsin Badgers (4-2; 2-1) [+2]
The Badgers have had quite a bit of a jump over the past couple of weeks. Since the QB switch, Wisconsin has been heating up with two big beatdowns on Big Ten teams. Against Purdue and Rutgers, Wisconsin has outscored them 94-13. That’s a massive point differential that we have not seen since Indiana was still in their non-Conference play. The Badgers travel to Northwestern this week in a matchup that is sure to continue showing how dominate this team can be.
12. Rutgers Scarlet Knights (4-2; 1-2) [-5]
Rutgers seems to have been broken by Nebraska. Dropping two straight after a 4-0 start is never great, but doing so while only scoring twice over those two weeks is worse. This week should hopefully be a bounce back week as they host the UCLA Bruins.
The Bruins cannot seem to stop anything thrown at them. Hopefully that means the Scarlet Knights will be able to throw Kyle Monangai at the Bruins 30 times and record 175 rushing yards and a pair of rushing touchdowns.
13. Michigan State Spartans (3-3; 1-2) [-1]
The Spartans are like a Katy Perry song: Hot and Cold. Some weeks, the Spartans play like the best team in the Big Ten and other weeks they manage to only put up seven points. This week will be a good test of who they really are as they go against a powerful offense in the Iowa Hawkeyes.
14. Minnesota Golden Gophers (4-3; 2-2) [–]
If there were a giant nickel left outside of the Golden Gophers’ stadium each time they held a west coast team to 17 points while putting up 20-plus points themselves, there would be two giant nickels.
That may not seem like a lot, but it’s awesome that the Gophers have done it twice in a row. They now get to rest up on their bye week before they host Maryland. It’s always great to see the Gophers win – unless you’re facing the Gophers.
15. Purdue Boilermakers (1-6; 0-4) [+2]
Is it biased to move the Boilermakers up two spots in these Big Ten football power rankings after a loss? Maybe, but the way the Boilermakers played last week was better than most teams. The second half of the Purdue-Illinois game was dominated by Purdue.
Purdue was down 27-3 with half of the third quarter left, but the Boilermakers managed to score another 40 points before the end of the fourth quarter. Deep passes, a running quarterback, a strip sack for a touchdown, two successful two-point conversion attempts, and a recovered onside kick put the Boilermakers in range to win the game.
If the refs had a different camera angle of the “not a fumble” play, the Boilers may have very well won in regulation. When it got to overtime, both teams scored touchdowns, but the Boilermakers went for two and failed to convert, sealing their fate. The way Purdue played in the second half is how this team should have been playing all year – and it’s something they improved on once again, even despite their loss.
16. Northwestern Wildcats (3-3; 1-2) [–]
Northwestern got a massive win this week to bring them up to 3-3. That win cam over the Terrapins on Friday night in an absolute blowout.
The Wildcats have shown some life and will look to continue as they host Wisconsin this week in a Lake Michigan matchup. This seems like an easy win for the Badgers, but you never know what could happen! Northwestern could go on a seven game winning streak and finish the year 9-3 or they could lose out and finish 3-9. That’s what is so exciting about this team. No one really knows what they are about to do.
17. Maryland Terrapins (3-3; 0-3) [-2]
Maryland started off so hot and now they keep falling. They won all three non-Conference games and have lost all three Big Ten matchups. These past two matchups have broken them more as they have score a total of 38 points against two Big Ten teams. One of those two teams was Northwestern; they were only able to score 10 points on Northwestern in a complete blowout last Friday night. Maryland deserves to be here in the bottom four.
18. UCLA Bruins (1-5; 0-4) [–]
UCLA stays here at the bottom until they show otherwise. This team looks rough every week with no glimpse of brighter days this season. Hopefully they will be able to make moves this offseason and bring in some talent.
Hunter Greene
Hunter started writing for The League Winners in the summer of 2021. Hunter has been playing fantasy football for about a decade, starting in middle school. Now he’s a professional landscaper and avid Colts and Purdue fan.