Oh, right. That. Big Ten Power Poll: Week 4

1. Penn State

2. Ohio State

3. Iowa

4. Michigan

5. Wisconsin

6. Minnesota

7. Indiana

8. Michigan State

9. Northwestern

10. Purdue

11. Illinois

• The veiling shadow that glowers in the East takes shape. Penn State finally got Evan Royster over 100 yards rushing and the front seven definitely showed up, limiting Temple to just 46 yards rushing. While they may be playing only patsies, they've looked like the Big Ten's best team in these opening three weeks. 
• Iowa is leaps and bounds ahead of the team that squeaked one out against UNI, and a defense that absolutely throttled Arizona and Iowa State should keep things interesting in Happy Valley this weekend
• Michigan's defense just isn't good. The only difference between this year's Wolverine team and last year's is that they actually have the firepower to outscore teams, but chances are good they'll easily outscore 4 or 5 Big Ten squads this year
  
• Northwestern? Really? Syracuse? Really?
  
• I'm just being mean to Illinois. After all, technically, it's rivalry-in-name-only Hate Week. Both the Illini and the Spartans' only wins are over 1-AA teams. 
• Speaking of MSU, how gut-wrenching must it be to be just 5 points away from a 3-0 record? Roughly as gutwrenching as Ohio State being 10 points away from the title game in 2005?
• Purdue just might be awful. It's still up in the air how good (or mindbendingly awful) Oregon is, and Northern Illinois is Northern Illinois, and led the Boilers 28-7 at one point. Toledo just looks like another prolific MAC offense, but nothing special.
  
• Wisconsin is somehow 3-0. I was expecting to have them at the bottom of this thing right about now. I expect this to change soon.
• This year, is it a stretch to say that the Big Ten just doesn't have an elite team? Last year, I think Ohio State and Penn State belonged in the lower tier of the elite, and the overall closeness of the final tallies vs. USC and Texas seemed to bear that out. This year, I can't help but think whichever team makes the BCS will get rolled (and I think there will be only one that does). Is that despair talking or do you agree? For the record, I think the Big 12 and the SEC only have two truly elite squads each, and that's debatable when it comes to Oklahoma.