My Power Rankings from the Rivals Main Board:
Week 5 is in the books, and you all know what that means. Yes, it's time for THE most accurate Big Ten Super Conference power rankings in the known universe, and as always, if any of you disagree with any single one of the placements in this list...........you are wrong. How does it feel.
On to the countdown-
1. Iowa (They say there's no rest for the wicked, which is why your Big Ten protagonists got to kick back and enjoy some football on the big screen yesterday, before they get back to work next week in the Horseshoe)
2. Ohio State (Buckeyes cruise over Sparty as a final tune-up before the schedule gets real over the next few weeks starting with a showdown against the world famous Iowa Hawkeyes)
3. Oregon (Ducks started a little slow, but would eventually roll over the Bruins to earn their first-ever win as a member of the Big Ten. They'll get Ohio State's sloppy seconds against what's left of Michigan State before the anticipated matchup with the aforementioned Buckeyes)
4. Penn State (The mountain lions found themselves in a slugfest with the briefly-ranked Fighting Bulimias but were able to remain unbeaten, and should continue to be after they host UCLA next week)
5. USC (The Trojans were in danger of getting bullied by a Big Ten ground game for the second week in a row, but the Badgers remembered they want to be a mediocre, overhyped by the media spread, air-it-out offense under Luke Fickell and 2nd half USC showed up as the Trojans rallied for their first B10 conference win)
6. Michigan (Minnesota was an onside kick and a potential TD away from committing theft of the Little Brown Jug in Ann Arbor, but the refs caught them red-handed and made sure the Jug stayed with its current owners, and that Michigan didn't suffer a fatal blow to their playoff hopes)
7. Illinois (I've said it since Week 1. Illinois may not win these games, but they are gonna battle everyone they face this season. Some of that is due to the fact that they made the ballsy move to invoke the powers of cosmic positive uniform energy by bringing back the "old school" 90s-00s helmets....which oddly enough sort of clash with their modern uniform design, but that's just the uniform/helmet junkie in me speaking)
8. Indiana (Indiana is gonna be 6-0 entering their game against Nebraska, and the Huskers may very well be a damn underdog going into that game.........Have those words ever been spoken in the history of college football?)
9. Nebraska (There's been a lot of tale of two halves kind of games going around CFB, and in the B10 in particular, this season. Nebraska was the latest to walk that line as they played one of the ugliest halves of football since Iowa infamously won a 7-3 masterclass in offensive football (and I mean offensive in it offended everyone that had to watch that game) over South Dakota State. But fortunately for the Bugeaters, they realized they were playing the 16th best team in a conference called the Big Ten, and that Salvation Army Pat Mahomes was still their QB, and they took control in the 4th Qtr for the win. Now they host a dangerous Rutgers team in the kind of game that has typically been a tripping point for Little Red in these lean years. This is a prove-it game for the Rhule Regime)
10. Rutgers (And speaking of Nebraska's next opponent, the Scarlet Knights check in at 10 after a "conference" win over a Washington team that is a shell of the team they were a year ago. The Knights are a fiesty bunch that lean on establishing the run while having No-N Athan Kaliakmanis do just enough to not give games away (like he did at Minnesota), and they have found themselves sitting at 4-0 and just two wins shy of bowl eligibility entering their key mid-season matchup with the Huskers.)
11. Wisconsin (Bucky showed some fight in their trip to the Coliseum, but much like their game against Alabama, they could only keep things interesting for a half, before giving way to a more talented roster. They're very much right in the middle of the B10 right now. Capable of hanging with that half of the conference, and capable of competing for a half with the tops in a conference, but they still have too many holes to be the revolutionary monster that the media is waiting for them to be under Luke Fickell)
12. Washington (Surprisingly, the Huskies have a top 10 defense. Granted they haven't played a murder's row to this point, but Washington hasn't given up more than 24 pts in a game so far this season, compared to having allowed 24 pts or more in 9 of their 15 games last year. Couple that with an offense that currently ranks top 25 in total offense despite not showing it on the scoreboard, and that is why I'm still bullish on this Huskies team compared to others who just wrote them off because they lost their best players and coaches from last year.)
13. Minnesota (The Boat Rowers now know how Iowa fans felt after they got screwed in the 2006 Outback Bowl against Florida. Though, to be fair, an argument can be made that the helmet of the player that was deemed offside was, in fact, over the line at the moment of the kick. Regardless, it's unfortunate for the Gophers, but then again maybe if their coach wasn't an insufferable prick, they would've gotten the benefit of the call from the refs instead of them gifting Michigan a win............food for thought)
14. Michigan State (Two things can be true. MSU's is an improving team...............and they're still lightyears from competing with the upper echelon of the Big Ten (or at least Ohio State). With that said, they are kind of in the same boat as Wisconsin in that they are capable of giving every other team in the middle of the conference a 4 Qtr fight. Making a bowl game is still an attainable goal for this team)
15. Maryland (There's no shame in giving up 42 points and being the clearly lesser team to Indiana, right?...................but hey, at least they score points, which is what all the casuals want to see, amirite?
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16. Purdue (Credit to the Boilermakers for making fans back in Lincoln sweat for 3 Qtrs, before the floodgates opened in the 4th. To borrow a phrase from Colin Cowherd, I keep them above the bottom two, because they appear a little more "buttoned-up" on both sides of the ball, than the others.)
17. Northwestern (Cats drop to 17 over the bye week, and now they're the next in line to try and spoil Indiana's mini-Cinderella run. Statistically speaking, this will be the best defense that Indiana has faced to this point in the season BY FAR, so that at least gives this game some passing interest. Can Northwestern muddy this game up enough to pull off the shocking upset over a RANKED Indiana team?)
18. UCLA (The poor Bruins. I don't even think they're necessarily
the worst P5 team, as they have a little fight in them offensively, but their schedule is just brutal, and will do everything it can to continue kicking them while they're down. This past week, they got to be fodder for a rested Oregon team coming off the bye, and their reprieve is a trip to Happy Valley to face a Penn State team looking for one more tune-up win before their clash with USC on Oct. 12th)
