The Wisconsin Badgers put forth one hot garbage performance after another vs. Power Four competition, yet Luke Fickell still has a job. You can be anything short of an astronaut in your life, as Fickell is still the head coach at Wisconsin. He has taken what was once a proud college football program and done borderline irreparable things to it. To get shut out at home 37-0 by Iowa is awful.
So while this is more about the state of the Big Ten as a whole, rather than just the horrid state of Wisconsin, there can be lessons learned here for the Badgers tenfold. Every other team in the league is putting forth examples of what to do and what not to do. Wisconsin can either learn through them vicariously or experience them itself. The choice is theirs. So what will Wisconsin decide in the end?
Let's get the painful part out of the way before diving headfirst into how the rest of the league looks.
18. Wisconsin Badgers: 2-4 (0-3)
The only positive thing to write here about Wisconsin is the season is halfway over. The bad news is Wisconsin is about to lose its next six games to finish the year on a 10-game slide. If Wisconsin could only play Group of Five teams... Their big problem is they have a Group of Five head coach calling the shots in Fickell. The sooner the university moves on from Fickell, the sooner this team can rebound.
17. Purdue Boilermakers: 2-4 (0-3)
Although Purdue seems to be a better football team than it was a year ago under Ryan Walters, things were never going to be easy for Barry Odom taking over for him in West Lafayette. The Boilermakers are struggling in conference play once again. Even though they have doubled their win total from a season ago, this does not feel like a team that will come anywhere close to sniffing a bowl game here.
16. Rutgers Scarlet Knights: 3-3 (0-3)
Rutgers is so frustrating. The Scarlet Knights will usually win enough games to achieve bowl eligibility under Greg Schiano, but never enough to merit being included in the AP Top 25. The result is seasons like this where they can take care of business in the non-conference, but continuously come up dead in league play. They need to win three of their final six games to get to a bowl game, but will they do it?
15. Penn State Nittany Lions: 3-3 (0-3)
The Penn State Nittany Lions have earned their spot at No. 15 in the Big Ten Power Rankings for this week. How many teams are definitively worse than them, to be totally honest? After getting off to an inflated 3-0 start by clobbering Group of Five and FCS teams, Penn State could not do anything vs. Oregon, UCLA and now Northwestern. It was so bad of a stretch that it cost James Franklin his job!
14. Michigan State Spartans: 3-3 (0-3)
Things are not going that much better for Jonathan Smith at Michigan State. Not only did his alma mater of Oregon State implode under Trent Bray after he left Corvallis, but the Spartans are not breaking through like many analysts projected they would under his guidance. The goal this season should be making a bowl game for the Spartans but they are running out of runway to make it happen.
13. UCLA Bruins: 2-4 (2-1)
Fact. The UCLA Bruins are the best 2-4 team in the country. After moving on from DeShaun Foster after a disastrous 0-3 start in non-conference play, the Bruins have found something special with Jerry Neuheisel calling plays and Nico Iamaleava running them. The Bruins are playing with such great confidence now that they might actually have a halfway decent shot at getting to a bowl game.
12. Northwestern Wildcats: 4-2 (2-1)
Give David Braun his props! Northwestern is often a thankless job, but he is somehow finding a way to make it work for him in year three. Braun has been able to take himself off the hot seat by getting wins over UCLA and Penn State. Getting crushed by Oregon is one thing, but this might actually be a halfway decent team. Against all odds, Braun has Northwestern playing with a ton of fire and passion.
11. Maryland Terrapins: 4-2 (1-2)
Like clockwork, hash tag turtle up. The Maryland Terrapins briefly looked like a team that could sneak into the AP Top 25 a month into the season. As is the case with most cold-blooded critters, the Terrapins are starting to move slowly as the season starts to change. Mike Locksley needs to win two, maybe three, more games to keep his job. He has the quarterback to do it in one Malik Washington.
10. Minnesota Golden Gophers: 4-2 (2-1)
The Minnesota Golden Gophers are still a hard team to figure out. They are still winning games, but are doing so rather anonymously in the Big Ten. Frankly, they feel like a team that will beat all the teams it should, but none of the teams it should not. To put it bluntly, they feel like a lesser version of what we thought we were getting out of James Franklin at Penn State. Something has to give here...
9. Illinois Fighting Illini: 5-2 (2-2)
The Illinois Fighting Illini coming in at ninth seems harsh, but this team has come up painfully short in its two games of consequence up to this point. While they do have the head-to-head tiebreaker over USC, Illinois was thought to be within striking distance of Ohio State in Big Ten play. Their loss to the Buckeyes was bad, but their first defeat of the campaign to Indiana was the epitome of total brutality.
8. Iowa Hawkeyes: 4-2 (2-1)
Iowa comes in just ahead of Illinois, simply because the Hawkeyes do not get blown out in their big games of consequence. The Illini maybe more talented than them, but under Kirk Ferentz, Iowa finds a way. They came in after their bye after a tough loss to Indiana and put a whooping on Wisconsin at Camp Randall. It may have been more self-inflicted than anything by the Badgers, but this was jarring.
7. Nebraska Cornhuskers: 5-1 (2-1)
The Nebraska Cornhuskers definitely, maybe might be good. While they have a loss in league play to Michigan, it was by only three points. Conversely, that is the same margin as arguably their most impressive win on the season over Cincinnati in Week 1, back before we knew the Bearcats were even the least bit good. This may be the Matt Rhule pop year, but we still have a ways to go to realize that.
6. Michigan Wolverines: 4-2 (2-1)
Even though the Michigan Wolverines have enough talent to compete at the top of the Big Ten, they may have promoted the wrong head coach from within. Sherrone Moore is either still trying to figurre it out as a Big Ten figurehead, or he is getting exposed. Getting pushed around by USC this past weekend was not the best of looks. Regardless, Bryce Underwood has hit the freshman wall already.
5. Washington Huskies: 5-1 (2-1)
The Washington Huskies are knocking on the door of being something fierce in the Big Ten. While it remains to be seen how long head coach Jedd Fisch will want to stay in Seattle, the Huskies' only loss on the year was to arguably the best team in the country in Ohio State. Yes, it was at home, but this team is still so hard to beat there. Demond Williams is growing as a passer. The vibes are high there.
4. USC Trojans: 5-1 (3-1)
Look what we have here... The USC Trojans are 5-1 on the year with a narrow loss at Illinois. They are markedly better than expected, as this could have potentially been a 6-6 team. Jayden Maiava has taken a leap forward as a passer. Against all odds, Lincoln Riley might have staying power in Los Angeles. If they can beat Notre Dame, we should start taking them seriously. If not, then whatever...
3. Oregon Ducks: 5-1 (2-1)
The Oregon Ducks are who we thought they were. A bunch of cool uniforms, slogans and a whole lot of nothing else. This is a program that is trying to be the tough kid on the playground, but nobody is buying into that anymore. Indiana came into their building and pushed them around. Oregon is still every bit a College Football Playoff team, but these are the type of losses that people point back to.
2. Indiana Hoosiers: 6-0 (3-0)
Look at how high the Indiana Hoosiers have climbed! Under Curt Cignetti, they have become a buzz saw that nobody saw coming. While they may not play anyone worth their weight in salt in the non-conference, going into Autzen and blowing up Oregon's plans at a perfect season was certainly impressive. This team feels destined for Indianapolis, but it might not have the horses to win it all.
1. Ohio State Buckeyes: 6-0 (3-0)
And here we have the juggernaut Ohio State Buckeyes, back on top of the college football world once again. This team has not skipped a beat since winning last year's College Football Playoff. They may have lost both coordinators of note to other jobs, but Ryan Day still has a great feel for his team. Adversity may strike them down at some point, but Ohio State is among the favorites agains this year.
Wisconsin may not ever be Ohio State, but can the Badgers please take a page out of Indiana here?