Big Ten Power Rankings: How has Wisconsin looked vs. the rest of the Big Ten through two weeks?
· Yahoo Sports
The Wisconsin Badgers have been up-and-down to start the season, as they hold a 1-1 record heading into Week 3 after losing 41-13 to Notre Dame and beating Western Illinois 36-9.
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Through the two games, we’ve seen where Wisconsin could be good this season, but that has been mired with a lot of inconsistency on both sides of the ball. With a team featuring over 30 new players, some early growing pains were expected. But the Badgers are now just one week out from the start of conference play.
Overall, we’ve seen some interesting storylines from the Big Ten so far this season, with some teams facing disaster losses in Week 2. So, let’s go through the Big Ten power rankings from Week 2 from our friends at Inside NU at SB Nation.
1. Indiana
2. Ohio State
3. USC
4. Penn State
5. Oregon
6. Iowa
7. Michigan
8. Washington
9. Nebraska
10. UCLA
11. Northwestern
12. Maryland
13. Illinois
14. Minnesota
15. Wisconsin
16. Michigan State
17. Purdue
18. Rutgers
Let’s break it all down.
At the top, I’d still have Ohio State, despite their 24-23 loss to Texas. Those are potentially the two-best teams in the country who each made their mistakes, but also looked quite good in that game. Ohio State was a missed field goal away from winning, and they’d certainly be No. 1 with that. It wasn’t a pretty letdown in the fourth quarter, but they’re still No. 1 for me.
Indiana has handled business through two weeks with blowouts over North Texas and Howard. They’ve got a ton of strong returning talent. No problems there. No. 3 is where things get tricky.
I really liked what I saw from USC through the first two weeks. Their offense is clearly elite. But in two of the first three weeks, we’ve seen their backups struggle a bit when placed in the game on defense. Still, I agree with them as the No. 3 team.
Penn State looked fine against Temple last week. That game wasn’t really as close as the score indicated, but it wasn’t dominant with the slow start. Oregon was the big surprise, as they’ve got a lot of questions to figure out in the trenches around their star-studded talent. These two are probably interchangeable, and Oregon has actually faced two pretty good teams, but it was a disappointing loss for them in a game where they were flat beaten out.
Iowa and Michigan back-to-back is just how it is in the AP Poll, with the former at No. 18 and the latter at No. 19. Both had close games against quality teams this past weekend. I think Michigan eclipses them as the season goes on, but that offense still has big questions.
The next trio of teams come together for me. Washington has not looked clean the first two weeks. They’ve disappointed a bit, with a 16-14 narrow win over Utah State coming this past weekend. We’ll wait to see on Nebraska, who hasn’t faced a challenge. And UCLA has been only okay, needing big fourth quarter boosts to win both of their games.
I’d also have Maryland in this tier, and potentially even closer to the top of it. That team has talent and a very good quarterback option in Malik Washington. They’ve handled business the first two weeks. Illinois, though, was one of the flops of the week, losing 31-27 to Duke after opening as 8.5-point favorites. That came with Duke having 11 penalties and Illinois winning the time of possession.
I’d probably still have them over Northwestern, though, as the Wildcats haven’t been tested yet. Then comes Minnesota, who got killed as 1.5-point underdog at home against Mississippi State. Now, I think quite highly of Mississippi State, who has star freshman quarterback Kamario Taylor and a great rushing attack. But that was quite disappointing for P.J. Fleck’s team.
In power rankings, you probably dock them down to the No. 14 range because of it. But I do think, long-term, I’d still place them over Northwestern. They’re what they’ve been the last few years: just above average, but not much more.
Then there’s Wisconsin all the way at No. 15. And to be honest, I can’t blame that. After the last week, I’d definitely consider having them over Minnesota in power rankings, given that Wisconsin was more or equally as competitive in parts of the game against Notre Dame. But those two should be tiered together near the bottom of the rankings.
If I were to give my own power rankings, here’s what I’d say:
1. Ohio State
2. Indiana
3. USC
4. Oregon
5. Penn State
6. Michigan
7. Iowa
8. Maryland
9. Washington
10. Nebraska
11. UCLA
12. Illinois
13. Northwestern
14. Minnesota
15. Wisconsin
16. Michigan State
17. Purdue
18. Rutgers
Let’s check what’s changed after Week 3!