Big Ten Football’s Proper Power Rankings: Week Zero Nebraska Football Ohio State Michigan Michigan State Penn State USC UCLA Maryland Iowa Wisconsin Illinois Northwestern Purdue Oregon Washington Indiana Minnesota Michigan

Well the Big Ten went 17-1 this past weekend in non-conference play. The two most impressive wins were USC over LSU and Penn State over West Virginia. I didn’t want to penalize Minnesota too much for the loss against North Carolina.

As you will see there are a lot of teams that dropped a spot but that mainly had to do with USC making a big jump and not as a penalty to other teams in their wins.

Here are my power rankings after the first week.

Previous Weeks:
Week Zero.

1 – Ohio State

Previous: Win 52-6 over Akron.

Movement: Hold.

Upcoming: Western Michigan on Saturday.

Momentary Musing: Did we learn anything about the most talented team in the country? Probably not. And we might not learn anything until they play Iowa.

2 – Penn State

Previous: Win 34-12 over West Virginia.

Movement: Up 1.

Upcoming: Bowling Green on Saturday.

Momentary Musing: One of the best wins for the Big Ten this week and Penn State looked better than advertised. Going into Morgantown is not easy and they were raring to go. Drew Pallar, quarterback for Penn State, might be the best quarterback in the conference that nobody is talking about.

3 – Oregon

Previous: Win 24-14 over Idaho.

Movement: Down 1.

Upcoming: Boise State on Saturday.

Momentary Musing: Oregon was my pick to win the College Football Playoff. Honestly it was because I didn’t feel like picking Ohio State or Georgia. This week however Idaho gave my pick everything they could handle and it was a three point game with 9:45 left in the fourth quarter. I have a feeling this isn’t going to be a trend and Oregon is going to figure things out next week.

4 – USC

Previous: Win 27-20 over #13 LSU.

Movement: Up 3.

Upcoming: Utah State on Saturday.

Momentary Musing: I’m going to be slow on crediting Lincoln Riley on anything but getting a win against LSU will go a long way. If they continue to play great defense then this team can win any game this season. Their schedule is brutal.

5 – Michigan

Previous: Win 30-10 over Fresno State

Movement: Down 1.

Upcoming: Texas on Saturday

Momentary Musing: It was a little sluggish for the Wolverines but who can blame them with Texas coming to town. That will be the real test for Sherrone Moore.

6 – Iowa

Previous: Win 40-0 over Illinois State.

Movement: Down 1.

Upcoming: Iowa State on Saturday.

Momentary Musing: It’s so easy to hate on Iowa when they are leading Illinois State 6-0 at half. But then they end up winning 40-0. The best stat I saw was that they have already tied 2023’s season total for the number of touchdown passes caught by a wide receiver with three. But they win which is why they are so high on my list to start the season.

7 – Wisconsin

Previous: Win 28-14 over Western Michigan

Movement: Down 1.

Upcoming: South Dakota at Home

Momentary Musing: That win was much closer than the final score indicates as Western Michigan scored a touchdown at the beginning of the fourth quarter to go up 14-13. It wasn’t until a timely turnover on a punt return did Wisconsin turn the game around. Looks like the offense might rely on long sustained drives this season.

8 – Rutgers

Previous: Win 44 – 7 against Howard.

Movement: Hold.

Upcoming: Akron at Home on Saturday.

Momentary Musing: Rutgers returns with Big Ten’s leading rusher (Kyle Monangai) and quarterback transfer from Minnesota (Athan Kaliakmanis) this season and simply did what they were supposed to do against Howard.

9 – Washington

Previous: Win 35-3 over Weber State.

Movement: Hold.

Upcoming: Eastern Michigan on Saturday.

Momentary Musing: Washington apparently has their running back in Jonah Coleman as he rushed for 127 yards and three touchdowns. There is a lot of change from this program and at least for this week it appears that they will be fine. I’m not sure how much more we will learn next week but the matchup against Washington St. should be illuminating.

10 – Nebraska

Previous: Win 40-7 over UTEP

Movement: Hold.

Upcoming: Colorado at Home

Momentary Musing: I think I am really going to enjoy watching Isaiah Neyor this season. Good thing we have a quarterback who can get him the ball. This upcoming week though will be about Colorado’s offense against Nebraska’s defense. I hope they are up for the challenge.

11 – Maryland

Previous: Win 40-7 over Uconn.

Movement: Up 1.

Upcoming: Michigan State on Saturday.

Momentary Musing: 629 yards of total offense from Maryland. That is a lot of yards against just about anybody. They had a quarterback battle going into the game as Billy Edwards Jr. ended up getting the starting nod. It will be interesting how the offense looks against Michigan State this upcoming weekend.

12 – Indiana

Previous: Win 31-7 over Florida International.

Movement: Down 1.

Upcoming: Western Illinois of Friday.

Momentary Musing: Sure looks like this is a much better coached football team compared to Indiana teams of the past few seasons. The defense looks stout as they held Florida International to 182 total offensive yards. First big test looks like a matchup with Maryland on September 28th.

13 – Illinois

Previous: Win 45 – 0 against Eastern Illinois.

Movement: Up 2.

Upcoming: Kansas on Saturday.

Momentary Musing: In the race to lead the conference in turning the other team over it looks like Illinois has taken a commanding lead in that that they forced four turnovers against Eastern Illinois in the 45 point win. But like Rutgers, Illinois did their job.

14 – Michigan State

Previous: Win 16-10 over Florida Atlantic

Movement: Down 1.

Upcoming: At Maryland

Momentary Musing: Jonathan Smith gets his first win as a Spartan. Michigan State led 16-0 in the second quarter and never scored against. The game was 16-3 at half and things started feeling uncomfortable when Florida Atlantic scored a touchdown at the end of the third quarter bringing it to 16-10. They found a way.

15 – Minnesota

Previous: Loss 17-19 to North Carolina at Home

Movement: Up 1.

Upcoming: Saturday against Rhode Island.

Momentary Musing: For North Carolina I would like to welcome you to the Big Ten by winning by scoring touchdown and four field goals. Minnesota’s six year quarterback transfer from New Hampshire didn’t play great. Quarterback play has held Minnesota back since P.J. Fleck arrived. Last year’s quarterback for Minnesota also played on Thursday but for Rutgers and threw for three touchdowns. Different level of opponents but still could be interesting to watch as I think Rutgers is going to have a good season.

16 – Purdue

Previous: Win 49-0 over Indiana State.

Movement: Up 1.

Upcoming: Bye week.

Momentary Musing: At first I thought it was a typo but Hudson Card, starting quarterback, finished the game 24/25 passing, which (grabbing calculator) is 96% completion percentage. I assume it is just downhill from here as that number is obviously not sustainable. They get this week off before matching up with Notre Dame.

17 – Northwestern

Previous: Win 13-6 over Miami (OH).

Movement: Up 1.

Upcoming: Duke on Friday.

Momentary Musing: I still can’t get over the fact that NW won eight games last season. They didn’t look great against Miami (OH) but they found a way to win in front of a sold out crowd of a little over 12 thousand. So bizarre.

18 – UCLA

Previous: Win 16-13 over Hawaii.

Movement: Down 4.

Upcoming: Bye Week.

Momentary Musing: In DeShaun Foster’s first game the Bruins looked…well pretty bad. He has a couple weeks to coach them up but as of right now this team looks really bad. Though they did get the win at Hawaii which does mean something.