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Big Ten Power Poll Week 4

(No Bucknotes today; school is kicking my ass here in the early going)

1. Iowa

2. Ohio State

3. Michigan

4. Wisconsin

5. Minnesota

6. Penn State

7. Indiana

8. Northwestern

9. Michigan State

10. Purdue

11. Illinois

Bullets?

Bullets!

  • Big ups to Iowa for taking care of business. I personally think they'll be relatively unchallenged in the run-up to Penn State. Sure, the match-up with Michigan looms large next week, but I've got a feeling both Hawkeye lines will dominate and they'll be undefeated heading into an earth-shattering showdown in Columbus.
  • I would give Michigan and Wisconsin more love than OSU if either had played a team that I truly feel is as good as USC; Notre Dame clearly isn't there and Wisconsin was taken to the brink by Fresno State.
  • After that, it gets murky. I don't actually think Minnesota is better than Penn State, but I have limited data to go on. Right now, Penn State just looks like a slightly-above average team that got way too much credit for hammering hopelessly outmatched cupcakes. They're probably far better than they showed Saturday night, but they, more than anyone else, are under pressure to perform very well from here on out
  • Now we come to Indiana, this week's opponent, who looks like a completely different team - offensively, anyway - than the one that squeaked by Eastern Kentucky in its opener. Whether Tanden Doss, Darius Willis and Ben Chappell are that good or Michigan's defense really is just that bad probably won't be revealed to us until the Hoosiers get a nice look at Ohio State's defensive line.
  • After Indiana, it's a crapshoot. Illinois, in total disarray, might be far and away the conference's worst team while somehow being like the third-most talented, while Purdue's run of bad luck is looking more like poor (or at the very least wet-behind-the-ears) coaching with each passing day. Meanwhile, Northwestern lost to Syracuse. 
  • Lastly, with the play of both team's defensive lines, I'm actually starting to think/hope that both Iowa and Ohio State will represent the conference well in bowl games. Iowa has no history of bowl game failure against SEC teams, while Ohio State's defensive line is '02esque and could probably put Sam Bradford and Greg McElroy face-first in the turf on a consistent basis. If both teams make the BCS, I think one of either will finally win one

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Comments

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i agree with this...

except for minnesota being higher than penn state. piss-poor job by PSU for letting that iowa game get out of hand, but i think they would kick the shit out of those golden gophers.

by GrooveLeg on Sep 29, 2009 11:27 AM EDT reply actions  

Sam, am going to wait another week or two before I add my rankings for the Top 25 Blogpoll (I want my numbers to even out due to early season fluctuations).

But just to give a peek, here are the current Big10 rankings:

1. Michigan 3.86
2. Iowa 3.71
3. Ohio State 2.86
4. Wisconsin 2.72
5. Minnesota 2.68
6. Penn St 2.43
7. Indiana 2.29
8. Purdue 1.56
9. Northwestern 0.87
10. Illinois 0.73
11. Mich St 0.65

by talonk on Oct 2, 2009 5:47 PM EDT reply actions  

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