The problem with the Big Ten is that it's a mess. There don't appear to be any teams that are so far above the others. Indiana doesn't have an offense; Ohio State didn't seem to have a defense yesterday; the Ducks are a disaster class right now. It's a messy, messy field, and only one team is taking advantage of it...The UCLA Bruins.
If you want a perfect example of the Big Ten being a mess, it's this:
Ohio State beat Iowa 34-14
Wisconsin beat USC 24-7
Iowa beat Wisconsin 30-0
USC beat Ohio State 30-18
What is happening? It's crazy. Let's try to figure out the Power Rankings after this messy Week 9.
1. UCLA Bruins
The Bruins are the only team left in the Big Ten without a loss. They deserve the top spot even if they were playing a non-conference game this week against Nevada.
2. Indiana Hoosiers
The Hoosiers almost lost to Minnesota. It took a 60-yard field goal and overtime to make sure they remained in the hunt for the Big Ten championship and firmly in the College Football Playoff. A win is a win, and that seems to be truer than ever.
3. Iowa Hawkeyes
It gets real messy in this section from No. 3 to No. 9; it's basically impossible to power rank. They all have weird losses and weird wins. Iowa is probably the best example. They deserve a big jump, though, because they shut out Wisconsin.
4. USC Trojans
The most impressive Big Ten win of the week goes to USC, taking down Ohio State after getting whooped by Wisconsin the week before. Are they Trojans back? Or a big fluke?
5. Ohio State Buckeyes
Clearly, they were not prepared to send their 5-star freshman into battle. He was a problem, and the Buckeyes could not overcome it.
6. Wisconsin Badgers
After getting throttled, the Badgers don't deserve to be this high, but there aren't many better options behind them. The league is a mess.
7. Minnesota Golden Gophers
The Golden Gophers go from Indiana to UCLA. That's a tough stretch. They love to upset teams, though, so you never know.
8. Oregon Ducks
Beating Northwestern isn't usually an impressive win, but somehow it is this season for the Ducks. They have some big problems to figure out to finish up this season.
9. Northwestern Wildcats
The Wildcats are now off to face Iowa after losing to Oregon. The fun run of Northwestern may have reached its end.
10. Illinois Fighting Illini
Give them credit for staying in the fight and finding wins. Barely beating Maryland isn't impressive, but once again...right now, a win is a win.
11. Washington Huskies
The Huskies had Demond Williams benched and then desperately needed him down the stretch. He pulled a win out of his rear end. If you haven't seen the highlights, go check those out. You can see the soul of Nebraska leaving them when Demond converted a long third down, and then a long fourth down, only to cap it off with a touchdown.
12. Michigan Wolverines
The Wolverines won a game against Rutgers, but they look bad. Will Kyle Whittingham even make it one year as the coach?
13. Nebraska Cornhuskers
The Cornhuskers just re-signed their quarterback to another deal, and yet the offense was miserable against the Huskies. Washington hasn't been known for having a good defense this year, so that's a real problem for Nebraska.
14. Penn State Nittany Lions
Penn State finally got their first Big Ten win...against Purdue.
15. Purdue Boilermakers
Purdue has definitely improved this season, but the problem for the Boilermakers is that they still have a long way to go. So two Big Ten wins are two more than they had last year, but it's still not competitive in this conference.
16. Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Rutgers is probably the worst team in the conference, but they beat Maryland, so they get to be higher than them with their one Big Ten win.
17. Michigan State Spartans
The Spartans are in a miserable place.
18. Maryland Terrapins
Firing the coach seemed to spark this Maryland team, they almost pulled off the upset over Illinois.
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