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The Big Ten race is still wide open but we got a little more clarity on Saturday afternoon. Ohio State and UCLA are the favorites to play for a conference title this season as the lone teams with undefeated conference records, but two one-loss teams went down in Northwestern (at Oregon) and Wisconsin (at Iowa). And that's not even counting another one-loss team, Indiana, that survived at home against Minnesota by the skin of its teeth.
Here’s a look at the updated Big Ten power rankings after a riveting weekend that saw some important changes ahead of the first College Football Playoff rankings reveal this coming Tuesday.
Technically speaking, Indiana kept its Big Ten title game hopes alive with an overtime win over Minnesota. But needing overtime to outlast a Golden Gophers squad that is ... offensively challenged, to say the least, does not inspire confidence in their championship equity moving forward.
Nor does an injury to Josh Hoover, who was looking clearly compromised by a shoulder/arm issue even before he was knocked out of the game for good just before the end of the first half. Backup Grant Wilson did enough to pull it out of the fire in relief, and Charlie Becker and Nick Marsh make life easier for any quarterback. Still, it's hard to see this team surviving a visit from USC and a trip to Washington if it keeps playing like this, no matter how good its defense and its playmakers are.
Wisconsin and Northwestern were two of the most pleasant surprises in the Big Ten to start the year. And both were riding high into critical road trips to Iowa and Oregon, respectively. Which is why it's so dispiriting that neither was able to take advantage of their golden opportunity.
The Badgers didn't even make it off the bus on Saturday, getting completely blanked in Iowa City in a 30-0 loss. Wisconsin's defense is good enough to keep it in most games, but their offense is critically compromised, and things can snowball in a hurry if they get behind. Making a bowl game will be a real step forward for Luke Fickell in Madison, and it might even save his job. But there's still a long way's to go here.
The true bummer of the weekend is Northwestern, which was putting up points in bunches under new OC Chip Kelly and got to face an Oregon team in free fall after the injury to Dante Moore. If they won in Eugene, it wasn't hard to see them getting serious CFP consideration — but alas, it was not to be, as Dylan Raiola led the Ducks to 21 points in the second half en route to a 34-26 win. The Wildcats still have lots to play for with losses to only Oregon and Indiana, but with Iowa, Ohio State and a trip to Minnesota ahead, their margin for error is gone.
Yes, the Bruins are the conference's lone remaining unbeaten, as hard as that is to believe. But it's worth noting that they haven't exactly played a murderer's row of a schedule, with only a win at Oregon (in its first game without Moore) standing out. And a 27-0 victory over Nevada on Saturday in which they barely cracked 300 yards of total offense won't earn many new converts.
We'll find out what we need to know about this team soon enough, starting with a tricky trip to Minnesota next weekend and matchups at Michigan and at home against USC to end the year. And hey, they could drop at least one game and still have an inside track to the Big Ten title game and a Playoff spot. That's a heck of a job in year one for Bob Chesney, even if it's hard to take them seriously as legit championship contenders.
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