It seems like every week at this point that the Big Ten and Big 12 are jostling for which conference is the second-best Power 5 group in the country. After the Week 7 action, the Big Ten has taken control of the “belt” thanks, in part, to the shortcomings at the top of the Big 12. Of course, the Big Ten wasn’t without some shortcomings of their own.
Topping that list would have to be the Penn State Nittany Lions. Playing a Michigan State Spartans team that has failed to meet expectations time and again this season, Trace McSorley and Co. looked like a shell of themselves. They were a far cry from the team that took the Ohio State Buckeyes — who continued their winning ways in dominant fashion, for what it’s worth — to the brink two weeks ago, and suffered their second-straight loss because of it.
It’s also hard to look at the Big Ten’s quality without thinking that the Wisconsin Badgers aren’t the team that many thought they were. After suffering an upset loss to BYU earlier in the year, they had a chance at redemption this week against can’t-win-big-games Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines. The Badgers, however, couldn’t even keep it close as the Wolverines ran away with that one in Ann Arbor.
Why the Big Ten comes in at No. 2, though, is because of teams like Ohio State and Michigan, who both appear to be among the best in college football. What really puts them over the Big 12 though is a team like the Iowa Hawkeyes, sneakily sitting at 5-1 and looking primed to really bolster this conference’s quality throughout the rest of 2018.