We've hit November in the Big Ten.

As I had predicted, Ohio State and Michigan State took the lead the Big Ten East last Saturday. Both hit the road this week. OSU travels all the way west to Nebraska and demonstrates why I think they shouldn't be in the Big Ten. Michigan State plays perennial spoiler Purdue. We all know what they did to Iowa and what they did to Ohio State back in 2018. But the rule with Purdue was the victim has to be ranked #1 or #2 and MSU is neither, whether it is the CFP rankings (#3), AP (#5), or Coaches (#6). Michigan, the third Big Ten team in the top ten of the first CFP rankings (#7), Ohio State is #5, hosts Indiana. All three of these games are on either FOX or ABC. Last week, Michigan at Michigan State was the most watched college football game of the season and Penn State at Ohio State drew over seven million despite airing against the World Series and embarrassed Notre Dame on NBC. Could the Big Ten win all three time slots today? I don't think it's happened this season but if Big Ten fans unite it could and we can show we're the most popular college football conference in America and not that other conference.

In non FOX/ABC games, Penn State tries to break a three game losing streak at still over .500 Maryland, Illinois goes to a red hot Minnesota who won four in a row after beating Minnesota. Wisconsin at Rutgers and Iowa at Northwestern round out the action. The CFP sent a message to Penn State not ranking them while ranking three Big Ten West teams, Minnesota (#20), Iowa (#22), and Wisconsin (#21, which Penn State beat in Madison although that was literally two months ago). All 14 Big Ten teams are in conference action this week. We're not wasting our time with Liberty this week. Then again, Liberty's a better team than some of the cupcakes their brothers are gonna play the next couple of weeks.

Purdue strikes again! And the Big Ten no longer has an undefeated team. It's scary to think that Purdue has three losses. I get Notre Dame and no one outside of Ohio State is playing better than Wisconsin but you have to wonder how they lost to a Minnesota team that lost at home to not only Bowling Green but also Illinois as well.

Speaking of Illinois, so the same team that beat Minnesota on the road and Penn State on the road can't beat freaking Rutgirls at home? And they wonder why no one shows up to their games? That's why. The largest crowd at Illinois's Memorial Stadium this year has been 41,064. If they put the same effort towards Rutgers that they did towards Minnesota and Penn State they beat them easy. I'd love to see Illinois go 5-7 and have Rutgers be the team to keep them out of a bowl game. Of course knowing Illinois they'll lose to Northwestern too. The snotty rich have won six in a row.

Speaking of teams that don't know when to turn it on and off, Nebraska. They've played Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Oklahoma close and yet lost at Illinois and Minnesota. If the Nebraska that played OSU, UM, MSU, and OU played Illinois and Minnesota, they would've beaten both of them. But talk about a crossover nightmare for Nebraska, getting Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State this season!

As for Wisconsin, they are rolling. Maybe the schedule got easy but that 30–13 win over Purdue a few weeks ago looks really good now.

Just when we think we figure things out, it all shuffles again. The Big Ten is crazy this year.

Right now Ohio State and Michigan State control their own destiny in the east. Michigan needs Michigan State to drop one, but then would control it too (and they still have both Ohio State and Penn State to go).


In the west, we are wide open with Wisconsin, Minnesota, Purdue, and Iowa all 4-2. My money right now is on Wisconsin, but anyone could do it.