College football conference power rankings: Week 4

My word, the Week 3 slate almost could not have gone worse for the Big Ten than it ultimately did. Yes, we know that the Ohio State Buckeyes were tested for the first time of the season and passed that test with a gritty and impressive victory in Arlington over the TCU Horned Frogs. After that, however, there were a lot of unimpressive things that transpired throughout the conference, as evidenced by their 6-7 combined record.

The worst loss out of the Big Ten undoubtedly belongs to the Wisconsin Badgers. Led by Heisman candidate running back Jonathan Taylor, this team looked poised to run the table through a relatively soft schedule and potentially compete for a College Football Playoff spot. However, they went out at home and put up a stinker against the BYU Cougars, ultimately suffering a 24-21 defeat. When the supposed second-best team in the conference does that, it’s not a good look.

Perhaps worse for the Big Ten was what the Rutgers Scarlet Knights did. Kansas Jayhawks fans were celebrating winning against a Division I opponent after Week 2 — and then Rutgers went out and lost by 41 points to that same Jayhawks team. There might not be a worse Power 5 team than the Scarlet Knights this season.

With the Maryland Terrapins falling to Temple, Nebraska Cornhuskers losing to Troy, Northwestern Wildcats losing to Akron and Illinois Fighting Illini losing to South Florida, this is a week to forget for the Big Ten and they have a lot of work to do to climb buck up these rankings.