College football conference power rankings: Week 3

1. Big Ten

While Ohio State’s loss certainly hurts the Big Ten, it still has the depth at the top to hold on to the top spot by a narrow margin.

The Buckeyes aren’t out of the national championship race quite yet, although they will now have to run the table through the gauntlet of the Big Ten. Ohio State’s offense has struggled recently against good competition, and disappointingly piled up 350 yards of total offense after breezing by the Sooners last year.

Penn State is now the highest-ranked team in the Big Ten thanks to running back Saquon Barkley, and got revenge on rival Pittsburgh in a comfortable 33-14 victory. The Michigan Wolverines overcame a sluggish first half to beat the Cincinnati Bearcats, while the Wisconsin Badgers also hung on to a top 10 ranking with a 31-14 win over Lane Kiffin and Florida Atlantic.

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There were a few encouraging results elsewhere in the Big Ten, as the Maryland Terrapins continued their excellent start to the season by destroying Towson, the Michigan State Spartans won over a Western Michigan team that played USC tough, and Iowa came from behind to beat Iowa State on the road. The only really bad loss belonged to a massively under performing Northwestern team, and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights were unable to build on their solid showing against Washington in a loss to the Eastern Michigan Eagles.

Even with the Buckeyes falling a bit, no other conference can match the strength of the Big Ten’s top four, although the ACC made things close in Week 2.