No Friday football until Black Friday.

The Game of the Season so far is tomorrow in Iowa City as Penn State travels west of the Mississippi to play Iowa. The winner remains in the thick of the College Football Playoff race. The loser probably isn't out but loses leeway. Iowa's schedule is much easier after this being in the weaker West Division. Unless Wisconsin rebounds, they shouldn't lose another game the rest of the way and should at least have a shot at the Big Ten title in Indianapolis. Penn State still has to go to Columbus and East Lansing and Michigan still will come to Happy Valley.

It's Homecoming for Illinois. Last year of course was the COVID year so this is Illinois's first true "Homecoming" since the pandemic started. In 2019, Illinois hosted Wisconsin and stunned a previously unbeaten Badger team on a last second field goal. The win was the difference in us going to a bowl game, our first since 2014.

It's also Ohio State's Homecoming vs. Maryland if there are any OSU alums on the board as well as Rutgers'.

Well the good news for me at least: I finally got a non Big Ten pick contest pick correct.

The bad news is Oklahoma is still undefeated. If they still are undefeated at the end of the year, they could prevent Ohio State from the Playoff.

Well I couldn't screw Oklahoma... or Georgia ... by picking them in TerpsPhoenix's pick contest. But the Big Ten saw a bigger tree fall down. Is this better for Ohio State? If Georgia beats Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, yes, that's the two loss team the Big Ten needed to prevent the SEC from getting both Georgia and Alabama from getting in. If Alabama beats Georgia, probably not. And the worst thing about A&M being the one to beat 'Bama is they ALREADY have two SEC losses. Alabama still controls its SEC West destiny.

In the Pac-12, Stanford (the team that beat Oregon) lost to Arizona State. It's not a Pac-12 North loss but it still counts in the Pac-12 standings and it's Stanford's second Pac-12 loss. Right now Oregon and Oregon State have one conference loss each and are tied in the loss column with Washington. Oregon still has to go to Seattle but hosts Oregon State. Oregon also has to go to UCLA although both Fresno State and Arizona State have won at the Rose Bowl this year. The problem now is Oregon is back to controlling its destiny for the Pac-12 Championship and a 12-1 Oregon would likely make the Playoff over a 12-1 Ohio State team.

Back in the Big Ten, Penn State needs Sean Clifford back in a hurry (or a decent backup QB). Iowa, as bad as Penn State's backup QB was, still barely won in Iowa City. Does anyone think they're going to beat Ohio State in Indy? Would they have beaten PSU if Clifford hadn't gotten hurt? They now have a game cushion in the West even if Wisconsin upsets them. After the last two weeks, that 4-0 Maryland start seems like a distant memory. Michigan is undefeated but they beat Rutgers by a touchdown and Nebraska by a field goal. Nothing tells me they are going to beat Ohio State or even Michigan State in East Lansing. I know Rutgers is still Buttgers/Ruttgirls and Maryland probably isn't the same team that went 4-0 but can anyone not say Ohio State isn't the favorite again in the Big Ten? They'd love to have that Oregon game back now. It's going to really suck for Ohio State if they win the Big Ten and miss the Playoff ... in a year when both Alabama AND Clemson also miss it!

It's hard to believe how bad Penn State's backup QB was. Ta'Quan Roberson was 7/21 for 34 yards passing and two interceptions (no touchdowns). He ran 10 times for 27 yards with the longest of 10 yards. Using him either got you 1.6 yards per pass or 2.7 yards per run. If only the top two backups didn't transfer in the off-season, one of which was Will Levis who is killing it with Kentucky right now.

Hopefully the powers that be can recognize how well PSU was doing prior to Clifford's injury and take that into account. The offense just couldn't move the ball without him and the defense was hung out to dry.