Buckeyes strengthen lead over the rest of the Big 10

Joe Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports
Joe Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports

As the Big 10 continues conference play, Sports Talk From Top To Bottom takes a look at the nation’s fourth best football conference, ranking its league members from top to bottom. We are using GamePlan Magazines power ranking system to come up with our standings. In some cases, a team’s opponent was not included in GamePlan’s power ranking system so we gave those programs a 110 power ranking each week in order to calculate the power ranking of those programs that are included in these standings.

Feel free to throw your thoughts in on these rankings. A team’s power ranking is a season-long accumulation of points, so these standings may change dramatically from week to week. On the first line next to ‘Big Ten Conference’ is the league’s collective won-loss record and the average power ranking of the school’s that compete for the conference. On the line next to each school is that school’s league record, overall record, power ranking and which division they reside in.

Enjoy!

Mike Carter-USA TODAY Sports
Mike Carter-USA TODAY Sports

Big Ten Conference 48-26 121.4

1. Ohio State 3-0 5-1 140 East

2. Penn State 3-0 6-0 136 East

3. Wisconsin 2-0 5-0 133 West

4. *Michigan 1-1 4-1 127 East

5. *Michigan State 2-0 4-1 122 East

6. Iowa 1-2 4-2 122 West

7. Purdue 1-1 3-2 121 West

8. Indiana 0-2 3-2 121 East

9. Nebraska 2-1 3-3 119 West

10. Northwestern 0-2 2-3 119 West

11. Minnesota 0-2 3-2 116 West

12. Maryland 1-1 3-2 115 East

13. Rutgers 0-2 1-4 107 East

14. Illinois 0-2 2-3 105 West

* I know many of you will bash us for placing Michigan ahead of Michigan State here. But remember these power rankings are calculations of everything that has played out to date this season – not just one game. As of now the system sees Michigan State’s win over Michigan as an upset. If the Spartans really are better than the Wolverines, it will eventually play out in these power rankings as the season goes on.

Next Week’s Big 10 Predictions

Ohio State 42, Nebraska 21

Penn State Idle

Wisconsin 35, Purdue 21

Michigan 28, Indiana 21

Michigan State 27, Minnesota 21

Iowa Idle

Northwestern 28, Maryland 24

Rutgers 24, Illinois 21

Sandra Dukes-USA TODAY Sports
Sandra Dukes-USA TODAY Sports