Big Ten Football Midseason Review

We’re about halfway through the college football season. That means it’s time to take a look around the Big Ten conference and quickly review what’s happened so far and what’s upcoming. We’ll look at the teams by breaking the Big Ten into three categories.

Upper Echelon of the 2007 Big Ten

Ohio State

After losing a bunch of key players on offense, the Buckeyes were supposed to take a small step back this season. So far they haven’t appeared to take a step back at all. The Buckeyes have gone 6-0, won all of their games quite handily, and passed two early season tests on the road at Washington and on the road at Purdue.

Realistically, Ohio State could be playing for another National Championship this season. The Big Ten is definitely down this year. There are several solid, dangerous teams, but no fantastic powerhouse that Jim Tressel will have to worry about preparing his team for.

If the Buckeyes can win out, and LSU or Cal drops a game they should be playing in the BCS National Championship Game again this year. Major tests remaining on their schedule include @Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, and @Michigan.

Michigan

The Wolverines started the season out in dreadful fashion losing an already infamous game to Appalachian State and following that up by getting smoked out of the Big House by Oregon. That said, they righted the ship against Notre Dame and ran off four in a row, highlighted by a win over then top-10 Penn State.

Amazingly with the way the Wolverines started the season, they still have a chance to bring home a Big Ten title and play in a BCS Bowl. It’ll be interesting to see if Lloyd Carr has gotten his team to turn the corner, or if some of the efforts that they had against the likes of Appalachian State and Oregon could rear their ugly heads again. This team certainly has a lot of potential as they were a preseason National Championship hopeful.

Wisconsin

Another preseason favorite whose National Championship hopes have been dashed, like the Wolverines, the Badgers could still realistically win the conference. Of course Wisconsin didn’t do themselves any favors in that department in Illinois this past weekend. The Illini jumped out early on Wisconsin and the Badgers didn’t have the firepower to come back.

The Badgers certainly don’t have an easy road in front of them with contests @Penn State, @Ohio State, and vs. Michigan. As loaded as they are on the offensive side of the ball, they have a punchers chance in all of those match-ups, though I’d have a tough time believing they’ll take more than two of the three. With one conference loss already, that probably kills their Big Ten Title hopes.

Illinois

The Fighting Illini are certainly the dark horse this season. The Illinois faithful have been waiting patiently over the past two years for Ron Zook to turn this program around. It looks like he’s done it. After an opening season loss vs. Mizzou, the Illini have run off 5 in a row, highlighted by wins vs. Penn State and then #5 Wisconsin. They have a balanced attack on offense and have played very well behind a raucous home crowd so far this season.

So what is Illinois capable of in their remaining games? Who knows. They’re playing with house money at this point and it would be a mild shock to see them win the Big Ten, but it’s not out of the question. Even if Zook’s team stumbles down the stretch this has still been an unbelievably successful season for Illinois, and a definite building block for their program. Keep an eye on their 10/20 game vs. Michigan. If the Wolverines come out flat like they’ve tended to do in some games this season, Illinois could give them fits and score what many in the mainstream media who won’t know any better will consider an “upset” victory.

The Big Ten's Middle Tier

Purdue

Purdue started out strong this season, opening up at 5-0. Like some of the other mid-tier teams in the Big Ten, Purdue’s record has been bloated by the number of cupcakes on their early-season schedule, though to be fair nobody expected Notre Dame to fall as far and fast as they did. Ohio State came into West Lafayette this weekend and easily beat the Boilermakers.

With upcoming games @Michigan, @Penn State, and vs. Michigan State, we’ll soon see if Purdue’s 5-0 record was a mirage of scheduling or if their program is building on last season’s 8-6 campaign. What’s helpful is the Boilermakers don’t have Wisconsin or Illinois on their schedule this year, so they’ll get to face a lot of this season’s weaker Big Ten teams including Iowa, Northwestern, and Minnesota, a team they have already beaten this season.

Penn State

This has been an odd season for the Nittany Lions. They started the season highly regarded and ranked, rising to #10 in the rankings before losing in the Big House to Michigan 14-9. Then the wheels seemed to come off versus Illinois the following weekend, but with the Illini’s big win over Wisconsin the following weekend, maybe that loss wasn’t as awful as it first seemed.

This was not the season that the Penn State faithful envisioned when they were being discussed as a dark horse National Championship contender before the start of the season. Though, the Nittany Lions have a chance to get their season back on track with a home match-up versus Wisconsin this weekend. If they can get back on track versus the Badgers, and then keep momentum rolling @Indiana, it’s possible that Ohio State could have their hands full in a 10/27 match-up in Happy Valley.

Michigan State

After last season started 3-0, the Spartans ended up with a 1-7 Big Ten record, and a new coach in Mark Dantonio. This season the Spartans started out quickly, posting a 4-0 record with wins over Pitt and Notre Dame, but the optimism for this season has faded a bit with an expected loss to Wisconsin, and then a resounding thud against lowly-regarded Northwestern at home this weekend.

The Spartans could get back on track this weekend with a home match-up against Indiana, from there they have some tough games remaining @Ohio State, vs. Michigan, @Purdue, and vs. Penn State. This could be another thin year for the win loss record, but I think many would agree that the highly-regarded Dantonio has this program on the rise.

Indiana

A team that’s usually not much of a threat in the conference, the Hoosiers are doing well this season, amassing a 5-1 record. What that record doesn’t show is that many of Indiana’s games have not been against what we would call prime competition. Indiana tattooed Indiana State in a Week 1 match-up and their two conference wins have come against lowly Iowa and Minnesota. Also, Indiana might be making an under-the-radar play to join the Mid-American Conference with games against three MAC schools (Western Michigan, Akron, and Ball State) this season.

The good news for the Hoosiers is that they don’t play Michigan or Ohio State this season. Depending on how they perform against other mid-tier teams like Michigan State, Penn State, and Purdue, the Hoosiers could win four conference games for the first time since 2001. With the way this season started, with the passing of Coach Terry Hoeppner due to brain cancer, that would be a good step forward for this program.

The Big Ten's Bottom Feeders

Northwestern

If for no other reason, Northwestern gets listed as a bottom feeder for losing to lowly Duke, who is on the short list with Temple for the most years as the worst D1-A college football team. Northwestern may have had a turning point this past weekend with a big win on the road against Michigan State.

They’ve already played Ohio State and Michigan and have winnable games vs Minnesota, @Eastern Michigan, and vs. Iowa remaining. If Northwestern can put together some more unexpected wins like they did against Michigan State that could give this program something to build off of. This is another school that was left reeling last season with the death of their Head Coach, Randy Walker, from an apparent heart attack.

Iowa

Since getting out of the gate strong at the start of last season the Iowa Hawkeyes have really fallen apart. They ended last season 2-6 in the Big Ten, and after starting the 2007 campaign with wins over Northern Illinois and Syracuse have been on the losing end in four straight contests.

Iowa has a tough match-up vs. Illinois this weekend. It’ll be interesting to see if the Hawkeyes can bounce back in some winnable end of the season games @Northwestern, vs. Minnesota, and vs. Western Michigan. If not, heads could roll at a school with a lot of football tradition.

Minnesota

Minnesota has not had a good season. With losses to Bowling Green, FAU, Purdue, Ohio State, and now Indiana, the losses are piling up for the Golden Gophers and they haven’t been very competitive in their past few games.

Minnesota is looking like the Big Ten team that’s going to finish at the bottom of the conference this season. With games remaining @Michigan, vs. Illinois, and vs. Wisconsin, Minnesota could pull an o-fer in the Big Ten if they can’t pull out a win @Northwestern or @Iowa.