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First Posted: 11/6/2014
The Big Ten returns to the national spotlight for at least one more week. It will be interesting to see the reaction.
Though he would never admit such a thing, Jim Delany must surely be pulling for Michigan State to beat Ohio State in Saturday’s showdown. The Spartans have by far the best path to the inaugural College Football Playoff if they manage to win out. A 12-1 record with the only loss coming on the road to a very strong Oregon team would a better resume than anyone else in the league.
In this, the second week of the CFP selection committee releasing a top 25, Michigan State leads the way at No. 8. And Ohio State isn’t even the next Big Ten team in the pecking order. No. 13 Nebraska edged the No. 14 Buckeyes out by one spot.
Even before those rankings came out on Tuesday night, however, there were questions being raised about Ohio State. The Bucks’ loss to Virginia Tech looks worse and worse by the week. Their best win? Sure looks like it’s on the road over a .500 Penn State team, needing double overtime to do it.
The committee only looks at this season’s results, of course, but for all off the buzz around Urban Meyer’s red-hot start to his reign in Columbus — 24 straight wins — there hasn’t been a signature win.
Ohio State’s highest-ranked scalp in three seasons under Meyer is actually… wait for it… last year on the road against Northwestern, which was unbeaten and ranked as high as No. 16 at the time. The Wildcats have gone 4-12 starting with that game.
The Bucks were beaten by Michigan State in the Big Ten title game last year before falling in the Orange Bowl to Clemson. This is their chance to turn things around.
We’ll save that one for last while we slog through the rest of the league schedule.
| PENN STATE at INDIANA | ||
| NITTANY LIONS | GAME INFO | HOOSIERS |
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Noon, Saturday Memorial Stadium Bloomington, Ind. |
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| 4-4, 1-4 Big Ten | MATCHUP | 3-5, 0-4 Big Ten |
| LINE: PSU by 7. Full breakdown and prediction coming Friday. If there were any doubt just how slim the Nittany Lions’ margin for error is these days, last Saturday showed it perfectly. Just when Sam Ficken looked to give the Lions a much-needed pick-me-up, special teams again doomed them. The biggest turning point came earlier when Grant Haley fumbled away a kickoff to hand Maryland a touchdown. And a new punter did little to help those woes as another short kick helped set up the Terps’ winning field goals. Oh, and Christian Hackenberg turned it over three times himself and was fortunate not to have a fourth — a pick-six, no less — counted against him, saved only by a borderline roughing the passer flag. And that’s how the Lions’ losing streak reached four. And yet here we are, with PSU as a touchdown favorite on the road. Wow. If you’re confused, you haven’t followed Indiana the last few weeks. The Hoosiers are down to third-string true freshman Zander Diamont at quarterback and have thrown for just 35 yards (!!) in the last two weeks combined with Diamont at the helm. Yikes. Not even the country’s No. 3 rusher in Tevin Coleman can make up for that. Looking like another ugly afternoon of football. | ||
| IOWA at MINNESOTA | ||
| HAWKEYES | GAME INFO | GOLDEN GOPHERS |
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Noon, Saturday TCF Bank Stadium Minneapolis, Minn.
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| 6-2, 3-1 Big Ten | MATCHUP | 6-2, 3-1 Big Ten |
| LINE: UI by 1.5. Oh, you better believe it’s Pig Time. This is actually one of the more meaning battles for Floyd of Rosedale in recent years as both teams have a legitimate shot at the conference title game here in November. Don’t look now, but Iowa has scored 124 points in its last three games despite the general scorn that exists in the Hawkeye State for offensive coordinator Greg Davis. OK, so a lot of it seems to be well-founded, but the Hawks are still beating up on the teams that they should be. That includes a complete demolition of Northwestern last week by a 48-7 final, one of Iowa’s most complete games in years. Minnesota, meanwhile, had a week off to stew about an embarrassing 28-24 loss to Illinois, giving the Illini just their second Big Ten win in three years under Tim Beckman. That loss delivered a pretty severe blow to the Gophers’ hopes. Why? Because after this they have Ohio State, Nebraska and Wisconsin to close out the season. Ouch. But they’ll win this one to keep the dream alive. | ||
| No. 25 WISCONSIN at PURDUE | ||
| BADGERS | GAME INFO | BOILERMAKERS |
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Noon, Saturday Ross-Ade Stadium West Lafayette, Ind.
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| 6-2, 3-1 Big Ten | MATCHUP | 3-6, 1-4 Big Ten |
| LINE: UW by 17. There was a national writer going through the matchups of the week back on Tuesday. And his comment upon seeing this one was, “Wait — haven’t Wisconsin and Purdue already played like three times this year?” Big Ten football! Yeah, a lot of these games start to feel awful repetitive come November. Wisconsin games in particular have that effect on people. After a humiliating loss to Northwestern a month ago and an uninspiring win over Illinois, the Badgers have proceeded to win their last two games 89-7. Granted it was only league newcomers Rutgers and Maryland, but it was enough for Bucky’s crew to debut in the selection committee’s top 25 this week. A spot in the final four? No chance. But Wisconsin still could reach a major bowl at the end of a round robin of sorts after this — Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota — to end November. Purdue’s momentum was zapped with that near-miss against Minnesota and now the Boilers’ slim postseason hopes ride on winning this one. Not happening. | ||
| MICHIGAN at NORTHWESTERN | ||
| WOLVERINES | GAME INFO | WILDCATS |
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3:30 p.m., Saturday Ryan Field Evanston, Ill.
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| 4-5, 2-3 Big Ten | MATCHUP | 3-5, 2-3 Big Ten |
| LINE: UM by 1.5. That lilting chorus you heard last week came from Ann Arbor. Not so much for Michigan’s win over hapless Indiana, but for the “resignation” of athletic director Dave Brandon. For Wolverines fans, it’s an important first step. Yeah, they’re not big fans of Brady Hoke, but now with a new leader for the department there can be a much needed fresh start. With Brandon gone, fans’ dreams of Jim Harbaugh have been rekindled. That will be held off for awhile yet while the AD search gets underway, but the mob has been quelled. The torches and pitchforks have been stored away. There’s still the matter of reaching a bowl game here, and Michigan’s best path is winning this one and then beating Maryland after a bye, wrapping things up before the Ohio State game. It’s a good time to be catching Northwestern, which played its worst game of the season last week against Iowa. The Cats did a good job of rebounding a month ago, but QB Trevor Siemian isn’t looking too hot right now. Looks like the Wolverines will win here and possibly steal a bowl bid away from Northwestern. | ||
| No. 14 OHIO STATE at No. 8 MICHIGAN STATE | ||
| BUCKEYES | GAME INFO | SPARTANS |
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8 p.m., Saturday Spartan Stadium East Lansing, Mich.
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| 7-1, 4-0 Big Ten | MATCHUP | 7-1, 4-0 Big Ten |
| LINE: MSU by 3.5. Here we are, almost certainly the league’s biggest game of the season, even ahead of the eventual title game after the West contenders finish beating each other up. Though Michigan State’s defense isn’t on the same level as last year’s impressive shutdown of the Bucks in December, it’s still good enough to pull this one out. J.T. Barrett doesn’t seem to be too adversely affected by the knee sprain he suffered against Penn State, but it’s still a concern heading into this one. Probably the most compelling thing in Sparty’s favor is Pat Narduzzi coming up with a way to contain Barrett and Ezekiel Elliott and keeping the tempo of the game under reasonable control. That’s what he pulled off last year against more experienced talents in Braxton Miller and Carlos Hyde and it stands to reason he can do it again. Barrett’s impressive numbers nosedived against the other two accomplished defensive coordinators on the schedule — Virginia Tech’s Bud Foster and Penn State’s Bob Shoop — and there’s enough on film that the Spartans should be able to take advantage of. MSU’s Tony Lippett is an underrated deep threat who should be able to make the difference on the other side of the ball in a Spartans win. | ||
