Quick -- name the 3rd best team in the Big Ten! You might have to get your hands dirty. You’re not sifting through grade-A football anymore. But no worries, you’ll find something. What did you come up with?... that can’t be right. Minnesota? Northwestern? Michigan State? Illinois? Okay, just abort this grizzly mission, then. Listen, I know it’s been awhile but what more can I say about this season now that most teams are already halfway through the conference schedule. In the span of 10 minutes sitting in a bar in Madison, Wisconsin, I watched the winningest program in the history of the sport lose to Toledo at home, and saw Juice Williams throw for 440 yards yet lose at home to Minnesota. A few hours later, I sat in Camp Randall Stadium to witness a once-Top 10 team that had lost 2 games at home in 4 years get beat by 41 points before a typically infamously raucous home crowd. So what gives?This is truly a very topsy-turvy season for some of the more common reasons, and some deeper reasons as well. While turnovers and poor quarterback play have been significantly responsible for the craziness that has occurred, it can not be overlooked that there are some serious tides that are changin’. For anyone who wondered, Michigan football will never quite be the way it has been for the last 40 years. I’m not saying they won’t be very good, and at times, better than they’ve been. All I’m saying is 2008 Michael Jackson resembles 1980 Michael Jackson more than the 2008 Michigan Wolverines resemble the Bo/Carr Wolverines – and that’s even disregarding the Adidas logo on the unis. Speaking of changing tides, I may have been wrong on the Tim Brewster hire after the 2006 season up in the Twin Cities. One of my general rules in life is: “#347 Don’t fire the coach who brought your football program its only relevance and success in the postwar era because your once long-dormant program suddenly gets too good for appearances in lower to middle-tier bowl games every year.” Read my high school yearbook if you don’t believe me. Tim Brewster and the Golden Gophers are making a lot of people reevaluate the direction of their program this year, though. After a terrible debacle in 2007 (Two games vs. non-I-A schools + Final Record: 1-11), the Gophers are essentially assured of a 2008 bowl bid, and could possible make a New Years Day bowl. Led by a much-improved, opportunistic defense, and a tremendous QB-WR combo in Adam Weber & Eric Decker, the Gophers are already done with arguably their best 2 teams on the schedule (OSU, Illinois). Besides the promising starts, the other good thing that Minnesota and Northwestern have going for themselves is they both avoid Penn State this year. When it comes time to tabulate the final standings, not having a loss to PSU that just about everyone else in the conference will have could pay some big dividends.
Here are my Big Ten Big 11 Rankings. I'll make some picks Friday for a weekend that features the conference's biggest showdown of the year on its docket. Let's hope it's pretty.
1. Penn State
2. Ohio State
3. Minnesota
4. Illinois
5. Michigan State
6. Iowa
7. Northwestern
8. Michigan
9. Wisconsin
10. Purdue
11. Indiana
Keywords: Big Ten, Illinois Fighting Illini, Indiana Hoosiers, Iowa Hawkeyes, Michigan State Spartans, Michigan Wolverines, Minnesota Golden Gophers, NCAA Football, Northwestern Wildcats, Ohio State Buckeyes, Penn State Nittany Lions, Purdue Boilermakers, Wisconsin Badgers
