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The BSD Big Ten Power Rankings (Week 12): Michigan State or Iowa?

Should the Spartans or the Hawkeyes occupy the top spot in our rankings?

By Bill DiFilippo
Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Imagine someone coming up to you in July and saying "hey, we're likely going to see an undefeated Iowa team take on a one-loss Michigan State team in the Big Ten title game and also Ohio State will have imploded after losing a game to Sparty." You'd have thought that said person was crazy, right?

College football: the best. And the craziest. But mostly the best. TO THE RANKINGS!

Bill

  1. Michigan State (3)
  2. Iowa (2)
  3. Ohio State (1)
  4. Michigan (4)
  5. Northwestern (6)
  6. Wisconsin (5)
  7. Penn State (7)
  8. Nebraska (8)
  9. Indiana (10)
  10. Minnesota (9)
  11. Illinois (11)
  12. Rutgers (12)
  13. Purdue (13)
  14. Maryland (14)
I said last week that my No. 1 would be the winner of MSU/OSU, so I'm sticking with that. I don't hold the Nebraska loss against Michigan State as much as I probably should, mostly because I think they should have won. Also: Iowa is a really, really good football team. The gap between them and Michigan State is incredibly small, but if I have to say one team is better than the other, I would take Sparty. Narrowly. I still contend that Ohio State is the most talented team in the country, but my god that locker room is a mess. It's so bad that I toyed with flipping Michigan and Ohio State before settling on the order they're currently in.

Northwestern jumped Wisconsin based on the head-to-head matchup between the two teams, and the only other team that made a jump was Indiana, which looked really good against Maryland save for an iffy first quarter. However, by this point in the year, we know what every team in the conference is for the most part, so it's hard for one team to make a gargantuan jump at this point.

Maryland is last.

Nick

  1. Iowa (2)
  2. Michigan State (3)
  3. Ohio State (1)
  4. Michigan (4)
  5. Northwestern (6)
  6. Wisconsin (5)
  7. Penn State (7)
  8. Indiana (8)
  9. Minnesota (9)
  10. Illinois (10)
  11. Nebraska (12)
  12. Rutgers (13)
  13. Purdue (14)
  14. Maryland (11)

The Iowa-to-the-College-Football-Playoff dream is more alive than ever before. After seeing Ohio State falter against their toughest opponent to date, I now feel some sort of confidence in Iowa going against any of the top three teams in the Big Ten East. Good for you, Hawkeyes.

Outside of the sensible and clear top-four, Northwestern moves up after defeating Wisconsin. Frankly, I don't think either team is very good, but Northwestern has somehow managed to win nine games, so credit where credit is due. Penn State is the most "seventh best team in the Big Ten" that there has ever been. They beat the teams they're supposed to beat, and they lose to the teams they're supposed to lose to. In hindsight, you could have won a lot of money betting Penn State games this season with that in mind.

Indiana is probably going bowling (yay!) which means Kevin Wilson will stick around for a while (boo!). Minnesota has shown signs of life. Illinois is bad, but not as bad as the rest of the Big Ten. I don't care enough about the remaining teams to say more, although I am disappointed that Maryland didn't honor my faith in them as not the worst team in the conference, by getting smoked by the Hoosiers.

Matt

  1. Iowa (2)
  2. Michigan State (3)
  3. Ohio State (1)
  4. Michigan (4)
  5. Northwestern (6)
  6. Wisconsin (5)
  7. Penn State (7)
  8. Nebraska (8)
  9. Minnesota (9)
  10. Illinois (10)
  11. Rutgers (11)
  12. Indiana (13)
  13. Purdue (12)
  14. Maryland (14)

For the first time all season, I have a new team atop the league. Bow to our new B1G overlords, the Iowa Hawkeyes. I have them ahead of Sparty based mostly based on the zero losses. Yes, MSU was probably screwed vs. Nebraska, but well, that Michigan win.

Michigan and Ohio State will settle three and four next week, assuming the Hawkeyes and Spartans hold serve. Northwestern is a solid five after their win over Wisconsin yesterday, while PSU rounds out the top half of the league.

Indiana finally gets on the B1G board with a win over just plain bad Maryland, and can get bowl eligible with a win over Purdue next weekend. Rutgers is also in the league, in case you forgot.

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