Big Ten Power Rankings: Week 4

Week three of Big Ten action was relatively unsurprising and was devoid of a single upset, but there is still plenty to go over. Michigan is in danger of losing their number one spot as they play my biggest riser in Rutgers.

Let's take a look at my Big Ten power rankings as I breakdown my risers, fallers, and steady-eddies of the weekend's action.

| Iowa (#6 --> #5) | Rutgers (#9 --> #7) | Nebraska (#12 --> #10)

Although Cade McNamara still looks like a bottom of the half Big Ten quarterback, Iowa is chugging along. The defense is starting to look pretty good, but the rushing attack looks even better. Leshon Williams turned in a terrific performance and if McNamara can improve, look out for Iowa as my favorite in the B1G West.

Rutgers has just been a steady team that wins games their way. Sure, they are running into Michigan who could be an absolute buzzsaw, but the grittiness of their team will last all season. The Scarlet Knights have a very good rushing attack, led by Kyle Monangai, and a defense that plays tough and downhill.

The Cornhuskers may have finally found their guy at QB after a hugely disappointing start to the year from Jeff Sims, who is dealing with an ankle injury. Heinrich Haarberg came out and went 14-24 passing for 158 yards and two touchdowns on top of 21 carries for 98 yards and a touchdown. Haarberg had multiple 20-plus yard passes and did pretty much what Nebraska was hoping Sims could do for them, albeit against Northern Illinois. The Cornhuskers are not going away any time soon and should soon prove to be a tough out.

| Michigan (#1) | Ohio State (#2) | Penn State (#3) | Maryland (#4) | Wisconsin (#8) | Illinois (#11) | Indiana (#13) | Northwestern (#14) |

With so many different teams that did not move, lets try and keep it succinct. Michigan is in danger of surrendering their top spot to Penn State and Ohio State. The only reason that they remained in first place is because I think that J.J. McCarthy's three interceptions was more of a careless fluke than anything to be even mildly concerned about. The Nittany Lions and Buckeyes could easily see themselves moving into spots #1 and #2 depending on this weekend's action.

The middle of the pack and bottom of the pack made no movement because they either won games I expected them to, or lost games I expected them to. Illinois is the only loser and it is hard to bump them down considering it was against a top 10 team in Penn State, and it was not a complete blowout.

This may be the only time that these power rankings are this stable until late in the season. The B1G East is a gauntlet and the B1G West is a dog fight, so things will inevitably be volatile.

| Michigan State (#5 --> #6) | Minnesota (#7 --> #9) | Purdue (#10 --> #12)

As you can see, none of these teams fell drastically. Michigan State had a HUGE loss to a playoff-contender in Washington, Minnesota lost to a very good North Carolina team, and Purdue lost to a Syracuse team that will probably be ranked going into their Clemson matchup in a couple of weeks.

I have some major concerns about the Spartans. That said, if the new regime can get its footing they could still be a very good team in this conference.

Minnesota just needs more consistent quarterback play to compete at a higher level.. Kaliakmanis needs to improve, and once that happens they still have a great shot at the B1G West.

Purdue is just not going to be very good this year. Two losses in an I am not confident in them at all. I still think that they are building in the right direction, but Syracuse and Garrett Shrader demolished them on the ground.

It is still early in the season and a lot has to be figured out. I fully expect this power ranking to be volatile until somewhere in the weeks 7-10 range or even right up until the season's end, so keep an eye out for my season-long weekly releases.

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